Google v Commission (Google Shopping): A Case Summary

Abstract

On June 27, 2017, the European Commission imposed a record fine of 2.4 billion EUR on Google for violating EU competition law. More specifically, the Commission issued a decision finding that Google had infringed Article 102 TFEU by abusing its dominant position on the market for online general search services. Google had done so by favoring its own comparison shopping service (Google Shopping) over competing comparison shopping services on its general search page. Unsurprisingly, Google appealed this decision and on November 10, 2021, the General Court handed down its much-anticipated decision in Case T-612/17, Google and Alphabet v Commission.

This summary condenses the General Court’s 140-page judgment into a six-page overview covering all the main parts of the decision. Part I of the summary covers the background to the dispute, which includes the Commission’s initial 2017 decision. Part II covers the pleas for annulment of this decision put forward by Google and the Court’s findings for each plea. Part III concludes.

Keywords: Google v Commission, Google Shopping, competition law, antitrust, law and economics, monopoly, abuse of dominance, platform, search engines, Big Tech, two-sided platforms, self-preferencing

JEL Classification: K00, K20, K21, K40, K42, L40, L41