Google loses final appeal: the €4.1 billion Android fine is now permanent
The EU's top court confirmed the record Android antitrust fine against Google. There are no more appeals and the bill is sealed.
End of the road for Google. The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest court, threw out the company’s final appeal and confirmed the fine of around €4.1 billion in the Android case. The ruling is final: there is nowhere left to appeal.
Why was Google fined?
The European Commission accused Google of abusing Android’s dominance to favour its own apps, pushing phone makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome in exchange for access to the Play store. The original 2018 penalty was €4.34 billion; a lower court trimmed it to €4.1 billion in 2022, and that is the figure now set in stone.
What changes for Android users?
On your phone screen, little for now. But the judgment opens the door to damages claims from rivals who felt squeezed for years, and it strengthens Brussels’ hand in its other cases against Big Tech. For a country like Portugal, where the vast majority of phones run Android, it is one more sign that Europe wants clear rules on who controls the gateway to the internet in everyone’s pocket.
It was an eight-year courtroom battle, and Google lost across the board.
See also: Mistral and Europe’s sovereign AI push.
Official details at the Court of Justice of the EU.
By Oliver Grant
Image: FDRMRZUSA / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
