Google’s €4.1 billion Android fine: What the EU court ruled

Source Domain: www.thehindu.com

The EU court ruling brings to a close a legal fight that has run for eight years since the fine was first handed down, and is seen as likely to embolden further such antitrust cases in the EU and elsewhere. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The latest EU court ruling: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Wednesday (July 2, 2026) dismissed an appeal by Google against a €4.1 billion antitrust fine, confirming the penalty imposed on the company for using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. The ruling brings to a close a legal fight that has run for eight years since the fine was first handed down, and is seen as likely to embolden further such antitrust cases in the EU and elsewhere.

How the case unfolded: The European Commission (EC) had originally fined Google €4.34 billion in 2018 for exclusivity agreements that required phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search, Google Chrome and Google Play on their devices, and prevented them from using competing apps by default. A lower tribunal, the General Court, trimmed the fine to €4.1 billion in 2022; Google then appealed to CJEU, which has now sided with the EC. “The appeal brought by Google and its parent company Alphabet… is dismissed,” the judges said, confirming the penalty for “Google Search’s abuse of a dominant position in the context of the Android operating system.”

Why did the EU act against Google?

The Commission’s case was that Google used pre-installation agreements to lock in its own apps and shut competitors out of the Android ecosystem.

How has Google responded?

A Google spokesperson said the judgment failed to take into account the company’s investment to keep Android “open, interoperable and free,” and added that it had “adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018.”