Court of Justice’s Advocate General recommends dismissing Google’s appeal

Advocate General Kokott argues that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) should dismiss an appeal by Google for a hefty fine the tech company received for its anticompetitive behavior.

In 2018, the European Commission imposed a €4.343 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominant position by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers of smartphones and tablets.

The Mountain View-based tech company forced them to install certain Google apps if they wanted to install Android on their devices, such as its web browser Chrome and the Google Search app.

In addition, the manufacturers weren’t allowed to sell devices equipped with versions of Google’s operating system that weren’t authorized by Google.

Lastly, producers and network operators were ordered not to pre-install other search services on any device within an agreed portfolio.

Google challenged this decision at the General Court, but to no avail.

In September 2022, the Court mostly confirmed the Commission’s decision that Google imposed unlawful restrictions on manufacturers of Android mobile devices and mobile network operators in order to consolidate the dominant position of its search engine. It did lower the fine from €4.343 billion to €4.124 billion.

“We are disappointed that the Court did not annul the decision in full. Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world,” a Google spokesperson said at the time.

In January 2025, Google decided to appeal the antitrust fine of the European Commission once again.

On Thursday, the opinion of Advocate General Juliane Kokott was published, suggesting that the CJEU should dismiss Google’s appeal.

According to Kokott, the assessment of the facts and evidence by the General Court cannot be challenged before the Court of Justice. Secondly, the legal arguments that Google has put forward are ineffective.

“It is not realistic, in the present case, to compare the situation of Google with that of a hypothetical as-efficient competitor. Google held a dominant position in several markets of the Android ecosystem and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure that users used Google Search. As a result, Google obtained access to data that enabled it, in turn, to improve its service. No hypothetical as-efficient competitor could have found itself in such a situation,” the Advocate General writes in her advisory.

Furthermore, she added that the General Court didn’t make any mistakes in recalculating the fine’s amount.

The Advocate General’s opinion is not binding on the Court of Justice of the European Union, but is often adopted. A decision by the CJEU on Google’s appeal is expected in the coming months.