By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Europe’s second-top court will rule on Alphabet unit Google’s challenge against a 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) EU antitrust fine on Nov. 10, the first of a trio of cases, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The European Commission issued the fine on the world’s most popular internet search engine in 2017 for favouring its own price-comparison shopping service and giving it an unfair advantage against smaller European rivals.
Google told the Luxembourg-based General Court at a hearing last year that making innovative products was the core of its business model rather than helping rivals. It denied favouring its own service.
The court and Google did not respond immediately to requests for comment or confirmation of the EU ruling date.
The losing side can appeal to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), Europe’s top court.
Google has racked up a total of 8.25 billion euros in EU antitrust fines related to this price comparison shopping case and two other cases in the last decade.
News agency MLex was the first to report on the court judgment date. The case is T-612/17 Google and Alphabet v Commission.
($1 = 0.8498 euros)
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Louise Heavens)
