The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said this Thursday that Google must pay a fine of 2.4 billion euros for violating competition rules on the price comparison service introduced by Brussels.
According to a CJEU press release, Juliana Kokott recommends upholding the fine as well as Google’s abuse of its search engine dominance “in favor of its own price comparator.”
The case has been going on for 15 years, since June 2017, when the European Commission sanctioned the multinational company for violating EU competition rules.
The Advocate General’s recommendations are not binding on the EU Court of Justice, but judges generally follow them in their decisions.
In November 2021, Google was already ordered to pay a fine, but it appealed the verdict.