Europe’s highest court on Thursday upheld a roughly €4.1bn ($4.67bn) antitrust fine imposed on Google over alleged anti-competitive practices linked to its Android mobile operating system.

The European Commission imposed the record penalty in 2018, finding that Google abused Android’s dominant market position by requiring smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its apps, giving them an unfair competitive advantage over rivals.

Google challenged the decision through the European Union’s court system, but the European Court of Justice, the bloc’s highest judicial authority, dismissed the company’s appeal, leaving the fine in place.

“The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet against that judgment of the General Court, thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them, as revised by the General Court, for their anticompetitive practices relating to the Android operating system,” the ECJ said in a press release.

Shares of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, fell about one per cent in premarket trading following the court’s decision.

The original €4.34bn fine imposed by the European Commission in 2018 was reduced to €4.1bn by the EU’s General Court in 2022.

Google has maintained that Android promotes consumer choice and provides a platform that supports developers, device manufacturers, and businesses across Europe.

Over the years, Google has introduced a number of measures aimed at addressing the European Commission’s concerns, including giving Android users the option to choose their preferred search engine and web browser instead of being automatically tied to Google’s default apps.

The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, has pursued antitrust investigations into Google for more than a decade, after formally opening proceedings against the company in 2015.

Google has faced multiple competition-related cases from the Commission. Last year, it was fined €2.95bn over anti-competitive practices in its digital advertising technology business.

Although antitrust enforcement remains a key priority for the European Commission, the regulator has increasingly shifted its attention to the conduct of major technology companies under the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.

Companies including Apple and Meta are among those facing heightened regulatory scrutiny under the new rules.