Google lost the European antitrust appeal, but the fine was reduced from 4.34 billion euros to 4.125 billion euros.

CTOnews.com, September 14 (Xinhua)-- the European General Court of Justice (General Court), Europe's second largest court, upheld the EU's antitrust decision on Alphabet's Google to use its Android mobile operating system to crack down on competitors on Wednesday, but cut the record fine from 4.34 billion euros to 4.125 billion euros (about 28.751 billion yuan).

"the European General Court basically confirmed the committee's decision that Google imposed illegal restrictions on Android mobile device makers and mobile network operators to consolidate the dominance of its search engine," the court said. " "in order to better reflect the seriousness and duration of the infringement, the European General Court of Justice held that it was appropriate to impose a fine of 4.125 billion euros on Google, for reasons different from those of the Commission in some ways," the judge said. "

The CTOnews.com learned that the case was Tmur604Comp18 Google v. European Commission, which dates back to 2018, when the European Commission said in its decision that Google used Android to consolidate its dominance in general Internet search by making payments and restrictions to large manufacturers and mobile network operators. Google said that like countless other companies, such payments and agreements helped keep Android free and criticized the EU's decision for being out of touch with the economic realities of mobile software platforms.