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Google won a court fight with the European Union over a 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) fine for thwarting competition for online ads, partly atoning for last week’s crushing defeat in a separate judgment for abusing its monopoly powers.
Judges at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg ruled on Wednesday backed the Alphabet Inc. unit’s challenge to fine doled out in 2019, saying regulators made mistakes in their probe. Regulators had alleged that Google — as a dominant online ad broker — illegally prevented rivals such as Yahoo Inc.
and Microsoft Corp. from placing ads on third-party websites. Wednesday’s ruling can still be appealed at the bloc’s top tribunal, the Court of Justice.
The decision comes on the heels of two court successes for antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager and her bid to rein in Silicon Valley. Last week she won victories at the top court against Google’s attempt to avoid a 2.4 billion euro antitrust penalty for favouring its own product results on search and Apple Inc.
’s bid to skirt a 13 billion euros Irish tax bill..
