EU court annuls €1.49 billion fine against Google

The European Union's General Court has made a series of rulings on a case involving Google and a €1.5 billion competition fine imposed by the European Commission. The court has annulled the fine in its entirety, stating that the Commission failed to consider all relevant circumstances in its assessment of the duration of contract clauses deemed abusive. The court accepted most of the Commission's assessments that Google had used its dominant position to block rival online advertisers, but found that the fine was not justified. The Commission's ruling applied to a narrow portion of Google's ad business, specifically exclusivity clauses in contracts that barred websites from running similar ads. The Commission has taken note of the judgment and will carefully study it, reflecting on possible next steps.