Google suffered a setback Thursday after an advisor to the European Union’s top court recommended it dismiss the tech giant’s appeal against a record 4.1-billion-euro ($4.7 billion) antitrust fine.
Juliane Kokott, advocate general at the European Court of Justice, advised the court to throw out Google’s appeal and confirm the fine, which was reduced in 2022 to 4.125 billion euros from 4.34 billion euros previously by the EU’s General Court.
“In her Opinion delivered today, Advocate General Kokott proposes that the Court of Justice dismiss Google’s appeal and, therefore, uphold the judgment of the General Court,” the Luxembourg-based ECJ said in a press release Thursday.
The fine relates to a long-running antitrust case surrounding Google’s Android operating system.
In 2018, the European Commission slapped Google with the record-breaking penalty on the grounds that it abused Android’s mobile dominance to give unfair advantage to its own apps via pre-installation deals with smartphone makers. The Commission is the executive body of the EU.
Google was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Thursday. The company has previously called on the courts to void the EU fine on the basis that Android “has created more choice for everyone, not less.”
Though the advocate general’s proposal is non-binding, judges tend to follow four out of five such non-binding opinions. The ECJ is expected to deliver a final ruling in the coming months.
