In June of this year, the European Commission imposed a record fine of two point four billion euros on Google for giving unfair advantage to its Comparison shopping service against other Internet shopping services. It also ordered Google to change the way it displays shopping services in its searches. But in the wake of Intel's victory against the Commission in Europe's High Court last week, Google has decided to appeal the fine, setting up a court fight that could take
years to resolve. Here to talk with us about Google's appeal is Jennifer Ree, senior litigation analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. Jennifer why is it that Google has decided, unlike a lot of companies that have settled with the Commission, to
appeal this fine. Well, yeah, that's a good question, and I guess that, you know, only Google really can say why they've decided to do this, though it seems with the Intel decision in a qualified sense, you know, that's kind of good news, I think for Google, because what it does is it sets up a court precedent in Europe that where a theory of harm is based on foreclosure of competitors, which is the case in both Intels situation and in Google situation, that it can't just be
taken for granted that that foreclosure is anti competitive and violates the laws, that an economic analysis needs to be applied and all of the facts and circumstances need to be um evaluated to understand whether really that causes harm to markets. Jen a court spokeswoman, said that Google has not asked for an interim order to suspend the EU decision, which means that without an injunction, it's still obligated to pay the fine and comply with other elements of the
June ruling. Can you imagine why they decided not to ask for an injunction? That is right, they will have to pay the fine and alter the way their shopping services comparison shopping services are displayed. Um. I think it's likely that they did not seek an injunction because that standard is very high and it's unlikely that they could
have met it. They would have had to show that there is urgency and that they would have suffered irreparable harm had they had to comply now, and they have to pay this fine which they can't afford, and changing these shopping services, it just seems unlikely. They would have been able to prove in court that having to do these things now, as they weighed out the appeal, would
have caused urgent and irreparable harm to their business. So, Jenny, it's a it's the European court system, so it's not one all of us are as familiar with what what happens now? Uh? And and how can we expect this case to move along? Well, it will move along slowly, that much we know. So they have appealed to the General Court that is sort of the lower court. Compared to the lower court here in the U S. It would be the first decision. And Um. In the Intel's case,
they had a negative decision from the lower court. In other words, that court upheld the European Commission's assessment and then they appealed to the European Court of Justice. So that would be like our appellate court. And this is the court and tells case that that that sent it back and said this needs more evaluation. Um, so we'll
now wait for the General Court decision. And it could uphold what the European Commission has done here with respect to requiring a fine endo conduct remedy or it or it could say that this needs to be reevaluated, or reverse things, or even lower the fine. Last week, EU official said the plan that Google recently filed to comply with the European regulations appeared to be a step in
the right direction. So Google is moving forward, changing according to what the European Commission said, and still fighting at the same time. So if it wins, it'll just be able to go back to what it did before. Will that be too much of a upheaval? Well, I think, you know, I think that's a lot. We're talking way down the road into a lot of speculation, and frankly, technology moves so quickly. These worlds move so quickly. Things
could be so different by the time this decision comes out. Um, they have on ahead because they will be fined quite a lot if they don't make that change to the way they display their shopping services. So I think that's probably part of the reason they've gone ahead, and also because they haven't sought an injunction. Well, Jenn, let's take a little bit more into what we don't know exactly
what they're going to end up arguing. And you know, only really Google knows its reasoning, as you said before, But when you look at the way the European Commission looks at anti trust cases, what do you think they might be arguing when they get when they challenge this, Well,
I think they could be arguing a few things. First, that if you look at the totality of the circumstances, that what they're doing here is ultimately pro competitive or beneficial or or simply doesn't amount to a harm to the market that violates the European rules for abuse of dominance.
That could be one thing, um, you know. Another could be that that as a vertically integrated company that they don't where where they have the search and they have also the comparison shopping service, says that they don't necessarily have an obligation to work with their competitors, that they haven't excluded their competitors completely, the competitors have access and are listed in the Google search results, and that it's not necessarily harmful for um Google to be giving favorability
to its own products. It's it's it seems sort of. I don't know if Europe is used to having these huge fines and then appeals by these companies that take forever because these you know, the European companies haven't appealed as much. Well, you know, first, I think we have to remember that these huge fines are kind of far and few between. There have been some really huge fines, but the biggest ones, um, since this Google find was Intel and that was back in two thousand nine, so
and that was appealed. Other finds haven't been appealed in the past, but they really are are sort of foreign, few between. There's not a lot of record to go on here. Well, Jenna, just about thirty seconds. Do you think that, um, you know a lot of American companies have been critical of the UU. Do you think that this might start a trend of American companies with this and Intel fighting back against the EU? You know, it
certainly could be. It certainly could be some push to try to see if through these appeals, the courts in the Europe come out with decisions that are aligned a bit more with your with the US approach to antitrust, which is in this case and these abusive dominance cases is actually quite different. Well, our thanks to Jennifer Ree of Bloomberg Intelligence for being with us today on Bloomberg Law