European justice on Wednesday rejected Google’s appeal for a record fine imposed in 2018 for abuse of the dominant position of the Android operating system for mobile phones in the EU.

“The lawsuit filed by Google was essentially dismissed,” said the General Court of the European Union (TGUE).

However, the court considered it “appropriate” to reduce the fine to 4.125 million from its original value of 4,300 million euros.

In a statement, Google expressed disappointment with TGUE’s decision not to revoke the penalty.

“We are disappointed that the court did not completely reverse the decision,” the firm said in a statement.

According to Google, the Android system has “created more options for everyone, no less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world.”

The European Commission said it “save” the decision, emphasizing that TGUE “generally approves” of the sanction against Google.

TGUE confirmed that Google has applied “unlawful restrictions (…) to consolidate its dominant position”, specifically the Internet search engine.

Thomas Vinje, an attorney for FairSearch, an organization that brings together Google’s rival firms, said the TGUE decision was “a victory for the European Commission” because “Google will not be able to impose its will on mobile phone manufacturers.” Android system.

The penalty remains the largest in EU history, despite Google’s claims that the Commission’s case was unfounded and based on accusations that it forced the Chrome search engine and browser to system phones.

permanent friction

In its appeal, the company insisted that the EU was blind to the example of Apple, which either imposes or clearly prefers its own services, such as the Safari browser on iPhones.

Google also argued that downloading competing apps is just a click away and customers are in no way tied to their Android products.

The EU and whistleblowers have objected that Google used contracts with phone manufacturers to crush rivals in Android’s early days.

The General Court’s decision is not necessarily the end of the story. Either side can go to the European Union Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, to have the final say on the fine.

This process, driven by the Android system, is the third of three major lawsuits brought against Google by the team of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

In 2017, the European Commission imposed a fine of 2,400 million Euros on the company for anticompetitive practices in the price comparison market.

Two years later, in 2019, its online advertising arm, AdSense, fined Google €1.5 billion for violating European competition regulations.

To “order” the segment, the European Commission has proposed two laws, one on Digital Markets and the other on Digital Services, which should govern the rules of action for industry giants in the European domain.