Google protests 'eye-catching' USD 2.6 billion EU fine, judge disagrees
Google on Friday attacked what it called an eye-catching 2.4 billion euro (USD 2.6 billion) EU antitrust fine, prompting a judge to ask what sort of rich company can miss a comparatively paltry amount.
The sparring underlines the battle ahead for the world’s most popular google search, with two other challenges against EU antitrust enforcers to be heard in the coming months.
The Alphabet unit argued that additional amounts tacked to the fine imposed by the European Commission in 2017 to deter anti-competitive behavior known as a deterrent multiplier and another multiplier factor was excessive and unwarranted.
Google’s challenge came on the final day of a three-day hearing at the General Court, Europe’s second-highest, as it attempts to overturn the to begin a trio of EU antitrust penalties totaling 8.25 billion euros.
“2.4 billion euros can be an eye-catching amount, it might attract the headlines nonetheless it isn't justified by using the facts of the case,” Christopher Thomas, Google’s lawyer, told judges.
He said there shouldn't have been a fine to begin with as existing case law showed that Google’s behavior was not anti-competitive while its market shares and the 13 countries where in fact the infringement was committed did not justify the size of the multiplier.
The Commission used a gravity multiplier between 5% and 20% to Google’s 2016 turnover in the 13 EU countries, greater than the 5% levied on Intel in 2009 2009. EU laws enable regulators to apply a multiplier as high as 30%.
EU antitrust regulators should also have taken into account the company’s efforts to stay the case with concessions before they changed tack in 2015 and sanctioned Google, Thomas said.
“Credit should be given for Google’s good faith attempts to locate a solution to the Commission’s concerns using its three commitments offers and the almost 9 months engineering effort spent building that solution provisionally agreed with the Commission,” he said.
Irish judge Colm Mac Eochaidh, among the panel of five judges hearing the case and who had a day earlier said the company obviously committed an infraction, asked whether the size of the fine was as eye-catching as Google claimed.
“You are among the richest companies on the globe,” he said, citing the exemplory case of someone with 120 euros and fined 2.4 euros for littering.
“Would you miss the 2.4 euros?”
Mac Eochaidh also wondered about the energy of the court to improve or revise fines, a thought which Google tried to squash by saying the Commission hadn't asked judges to take action.
The court in 2007 broke new ground by jacking up a cartel fine imposed by the Commission for the very first time, leaving Germany’s BASF AG with an increased penalty.
EU enforcers merely stuck to the guidelines when calculating the fine, Commission lawyer Anthony Dawes said.
“The Commission scrupulously followed the methodology set out in the guidelines. Google’s conduct constituted a more developed form of abuse,” he said.
A ruling is expected next year and can be appealed to the Court of Justice, Europe’s highest.
The case is T-612/17 Google and Alphabet v Commission.
