16:31 - 2.07.2026

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July 2, Fineko/abc.az. American technology giant Google (part of holding Alphabet) has finally lost a long-standing legal battle against the European Commission over a violation of antitrust laws.

Thus, the highest judicial authority of the EU, the Court of Justice of the European Union, has found the European Commission's decision to punish the company to be fully justified and has upheld the fine of €4.1 bn (\$4.7 bn).

This verdict is final, non-appealable, and marks a major institutional victory for Brussels regulators.

The court confirmed that Google illegally exploited the dominant position of the Android operating system to drive competitors out of the market. According to the case file, smartphone manufacturers faced the following severe restrictions:

• Play Store lock: The sale of a license for the Play Store app store was conditioned on the mandatory pre-installation of the Google Search app and the Chrome browser.

• Blocking alternative OS: Large vendors and operators were paid monetary incentives for refusing to pre-install competing search engines, and the creation of devices based on uncertified versions (forks) of Android was also blocked.

As a reminder, the original fine amounted to €4.3 bn in 2018, but it was adjusted to €4.1 bn in September 2022 by the first-instance court due to a partial review of some evidence. The Supreme Court found this amount to be fully justified.