Google’s “judicial battle” frustrated: European Court of Justice adviser challenges Google’s decision to revoke fine

American Internet giant Google suffered a setback in Europe's "judicial war". A general counsel of the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest judicial body, issued an opinion on the 12th, disputing the decision to revoke the fine against Google in the Google advertising services case and recommending that the lower court, the EU General Court, re-hear the case.

The European Court of Justice published the opinion issued by General Counsel Juliane Kokott on the same day. As part of the European Court of Justice's proceedings, the opinion letter does not have legal effect. However, because most of the past judgments of the European Court of Justice are consistent with the opinion letter, its content has attracted much attention.

The Google advertising service case involves the advertising service "AdSense" launched by Google in 2003. Website operators, bloggers, etc. can use this service to display Google ads and earn revenue based on clicks. In 2019, the European Union determined that from 2006 to 2016, Google used exclusivity clauses to restrict or prohibit "AdSense" users from displaying ads from Google competitors, and accordingly imposed a fine of 1.49 billion euros on Google.

In 2024, after Google appealed, the EU General Court ruled to revoke the fine against Google on the grounds that the EU failed to fully assess the impact of Google’s exclusivity clauses. The EU subsequently appealed and took the case to the European Court of Justice.

Regarding the “judicial battle” between Google and the EU, the opinion states that the EU does not need to assess the impact of Google’s exclusivity clauses on a case-by-case basis. In principle, it only needs to comprehensively assess the impact of Google’s exclusivity clauses. In this case, the General Court of the European Union's assessment requirements were too high and the ruling was wrong. It is recommended that the case be sent back to the General Court of the European Union for a new trial.

On the other hand, the opinion stated that in September 2016, Google abolished or modified the "AdSense" exclusivity clause, etc. Therefore, when the EU General Court rehears the case, it should consider Google's objection to the 1.49 billion euro fine and reduce the fine.

In recent years, Google has been heavily fined several times for violating EU antitrust regulations, including a 2.42 billion euro fine from the EU for manipulating online shopping price comparison search results in 2017, and a 4.34 billion euro fine for "illegal restrictions" on mobile phone manufacturers and mobile network operators in 2018. The advertising service case is the only case in which Google has been revoked by the EU Court of Justice.