The EU’s highest court has dismissed an appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet against a decision that upheld a fine of €2.4 billion imposed by the European Commission.

The commission had found that the technology giant was using its dominance of the search-engine market to boost its own comparison-shopping service.

The fine was upheld by the EU’s General Court, but the company appealed the decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Conduct ‘discriminatory’

The CJEU today (10 September) dismissed the appeal and upheld the lower court’s decision, stating that EU law did not sanction the existence of a dominant position in a market, but only the “abusive exploitation” of that position.

The judgment added that it could not be considered, as a general rule, that a dominant company that treated its own products or services more favourably than those of its competitors was engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.

“However, it finds, in the present case, that the General Court correctly established that, in the light of the characteristics of the market and the specific circumstances of the case, Google’s conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of competition on the merits,” the court concluded.