The CJEU Confirms Google Shopping

On 10 September 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its much anticipated Google Shopping judgment. The judgment is the final word on the 2017 European Commission decision that fined Google €2.4 billion for abuse of its dominant position in the online general search market by self-preferencing its own online comparison-shopping service. Google appealed the EC decision to the General Court, which upheld the EC decision¹.

The CJEU upheld the General Court judgment. In confirming the EC decision, finding that, while self-preferencing is not, as "a general rule", a departure from fair competition, in the present case "Google's conduct was discriminatory and did not fall within the scope of competition on the merits".