The European Union flag is seen with Google’s logo.
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Europe’s top court on Tuesday upheld a 2.4 billion euro ($2.65 billion) superb imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own shopping comparison service.
CNBC has reached out to Google for comment.
The superb stems from an antitrust investigation by the European Commission, the chief arm of the European Union, which concluded in 2017.
The Commission said on the time that Google had favored its own shopping comparison service over those of its rivals.
Google appealed the choice with the General Court, the EU’s second-highest court, which also upheld the superb. Google then brought the case before the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s top court.
The ECJ on Tuesday dismissed the appeal and upheld the Commission’s superb.
“We’re upset with the choice of the Court,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC on Tuesday.
“This judgment pertains to a really specific set of facts. We made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision. Our approach has worked successfully for greater than seven years, generating billions of clicks for greater than 800 comparison shopping services.”
To deal with European concerns, Google in 2017 made changes that meant it would need to bid in the identical way as competitors for promoting slots inside shopping search results.
The Google decision caps off one other major case for the EU after the ECJ on Tuesday also confirmed a European Commission decision from 2016 that Apple should pay 13 billion euros in back taxes in Ireland.
Regulators are mounting pressure on Alphabet-owned Google globally. In March, the EU launched an investigation into Alphabet under its sweeping Digital Markets Act, which scrutinizes the practices of tech firms in Europe.
Within the U.S. Google is within the midst of an antitrust case against the Department of Justice with regard to its promoting business after losing one other antitrust case earlier this yr.
