EU court upholds 2.4-billion competition fine against Google

The EU General Court upheld on Wednesday a 2.4-billion-euro (2.8-billion-dollar) European Commission competition fine from 2017 against Google for abusing its market dominance by promoting its own shopping service.The bloc's second highest court largely dismissed the US tech giant's appeal against the decision of the EU executive branch, which acts as the European Union's competition watchdog, according to a press release.
Wednesday's ruling - a boost for EU ambitions to rein in Google's market dominance - can still be challenged at the bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice.
After years of investigation, the commission concluded in 2017 that Google had systematically given preferential placement to its own shopping service and demoted rivals in search results.
The penalty was the first of three anti-trust penalties slapped on Google by the commission in recent years, totalling more than 8 billion euros.