Google, Apple face billions in fines after losing appeals against EU

The European Union’s top court levied significant fines against tech companies Google and Apple, totalling billions of euros. 

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rejected Google’s appeal and that of its parent company Alphabet, against the 2017 antitrust fine of €2.4 billion, imposed by the European Commission for violating competition rules through its comparison shopping service. 

This fine was one of the several record penalties imposed against the tech giant for violating EU competition rules, totaling around €8 billion between 2017 and 2019. 

The court rulings come as part of broader regulatory efforts targeting the big tech companies, as simultaneously, the CJEU also upheld a previous order that asked Apple to repay €13 billion in back taxes to Ireland. 

Apple had gained the upper hand in the Ireland case back in 2020 when the CJEU’s General Court annulled the order for it to pay the taxes owed. 

However, now the CJEU has overturned this decision, ruling that Apple should pay the back-taxes.

The decisions are a boost for Margrethe Vestager, the outgoing European Commissioner for Competition, who has faced a series of setbacks in the bloc’s courts regarding her decisions.

Google will now face yet another test next week when the bloc’s top court will decide on a smaller fine, worth around €1.49 billion. 

While the penalties total to a large sum, they present a relatively small financial impact on Google and Apple compared to their overall market value. 

Apple’s stock dipped slightly following the ruling, while Alphabet (Google’s parent company) saw a modest rise.

The EU has implemented the Digital Markets Act (DMA) to prevent tech giants from monopolizing online markets. 

Meanwhile, Google has been facing additional scrutiny from the EU, the UK, and the US over its digital advertising practices.