Google, the American multinational technology company, seeks to overturn the first of three hefty European Union antitrust fines at Europe’s second-highest court in a landmark case that could determine how EU enforcers take on U.S. tech giants for abuse of market power. Google will layout its arguments against a 2.4 billion euro ($2.6 billion) fine handed out by the European Commission during a three-day hearing at the General Court. This penalty was for Google’s favouring its own price comparison shopping service to the disadvantage of smaller European rivals, said by EU regulators.
The EU has fined Google a total of 8.25 billion euros in three separate cases, including one involving its Android Smartphone operating system. This is four times more than its rival Microsoft’s (O: MSFT) EU fines of 2.2 billion euro. However, the company is expected to launch a three-pronged attack against the commission’s 2017 decision which also included an order to treat competitors equally.
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