Google has filed an appeal with the European Union’s highest court against an earlier decision to uphold a US$2.8 billion (A$3.9 billion) antitrust penalties, according to a representative for the Alphabet subsidiary late Thursday. This is the company’s second attempt to reverse the penalty.
In 2017, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager punished Google for using its own price comparison shopping tool to gain an unfair advantage over smaller European competitors.
The case was the first of three in which Google was fined 8.25 billion euros in EU antitrust fines over the previous decade.
The EU’s General Court dismissed Google’s challenge to the penalties in November, stating the European Commission rightly established the company’s tactics hurt competition.
The Luxembourg judges dismissed the company’s contention that the presence of merchant platforms demonstrated a high level of competition.
“We have chosen to appeal the General Court’s ruling after careful thought because we believe there are areas that require legal clarification from the European Court of Justice,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement.
“Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, we will continue to invest in our remedy, which has been operating well for several years, and will cooperate constructively with the European Commission.”
Vestager’s hand may be strengthened in her investigations into Amazon, Apple, and Facebook as a result of the court’s backing in November.