A top legal adviser to the EU’s highest court has recommended that Google’s appeal against a €4.124 billion antitrust fine be dismissed, underscoring a turning point in one of the bloc’s most consequential competition cases to date.
In a formal opinion delivered today, Advocate General Juliane Kokott proposed that the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) uphold the 2022 judgment of the General Court, which found that Google had abused its dominant position in the mobile ecosystem through a series of contractual restrictions tied to its Android operating system.
The case concerns a European Commission decision from July 2018, in which regulators fined Google €4.343 billion for anti-competitive practices dating back to 2011. The Commission concluded that Google illegally leveraged Android’s popularity to entrench the dominance of its search engine and web browser — at the expense of rivals and consumer choice.
Key Findings and Legal Reasoning
According to Advocate General Kokott, the General Court correctly upheld most of the Commission’s findings, including the classification of Google’s conduct as a “single and continuous infringement” of EU competition rules.
She rejected Google’s legal arguments as either inadmissible or ineffective, affirming that the company’s core practices — such as bundling its Play Store access with mandatory pre-installation of Google Search and Chrome, and its restrictions on manufacturers using competing Android variants — were designed to suppress competition in general search services.
The Court also did not err, Kokott noted, in forgoing a detailed “as-efficient competitor” analysis, given Google’s entrenched dominance and the unique network effects it enjoys. “No hypothetical as-efficient competitor could have found itself in such a situation,” she concluded, reinforcing the view that Google’s conduct restricted the ability of rivals to fairly compete.
Background and Context
The Android case is part of a broader crackdown on Big Tech by EU regulators. The original 2018 fine — at the time the largest ever imposed by a competition authority in Europe — was partially reduced by the General Court in 2022 after it annulled findings related to Google’s revenue-sharing agreements with manufacturers and mobile network operators. The fine was recalculated to €4.124 billion, still one of the highest on record.
Google, backed by its parent company Alphabet, challenged the ruling before the CJEU, arguing that the General Court had misapplied competition law and failed to fully consider market realities. Today’s opinion, if followed by the judges, will deal a major blow to those efforts.
Implications and Next Steps
While not binding, opinions issued by Advocates General are highly influential: the CJEU aligns with them in the vast majority of cases. A final ruling is expected in the coming months.
If the court endorses Kokott’s view, it would mark another high-profile victory for the European Commission’s competition authority, led by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, and bolster the bloc’s credibility as a global leader in digital market regulation.
The decision will also have ramifications for ongoing and future enforcement under the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which seeks to rein in dominant “gatekeepers” such as Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon.
A Pattern of Enforcement
Today’s development adds to a growing series of legal and regulatory challenges facing Google in Europe, where it has already faced fines for practices in comparison shopping and digital advertising. Cumulatively, EU penalties against the tech giant now exceed €8 billion.
As the judges begin their deliberations, all eyes will be on Luxembourg once more, as the final verdict could set a lasting precedent for how Europe polices digital dominance in the mobile era.
Note: The Advocate General’s Opinion is not binding. The Court of Justice will issue its final judgment at a later date.
