Google suffered a setback at the European Court of Justice today as an adviser to the court recommended upholding a record antitrust fine.

The U.S. tech giant has been appealing the €4.3 billion (RM21 billion) penalty issued by the European Commission in 2018, which was later trimmed to €4.1 billion.

The Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, Juliane Kokott, dismissed Google’s legal arguments as “ineffective,” the court said in a statement.

“Google held a dominant position in several markets of the Android-ecosystem and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure that users used Google Search,” the court said, detailing Kokott’s opinion.

“As a result, Google obtained access to data that enabled it in turn to improve its service. No hypothetical as-efficient competitor could have found itself in such a situation,” the statement read.

While not legally binding, the advice carries significant influence and is frequently followed by EU judges in their final decisions.

The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust regulator, accused Google of leveraging the widespread use of its Android operating system to limit competition.

It alleged that Google compelled smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its search engine and Chrome browser, effectively blocking out competitors.

In 2022, the EU’s second-highest court upheld the findings but slightly lowered the fine.

The penalty remains the largest ever imposed by the EU.

Google challenged the ruling, arguing that the Commission’s case was unfounded and that the sanction punished innovation.

Google also argued that the EU was overlooking similar practices by Apple, which prioritises its own services like the Safari browser on iPhones.

As part of a broader crackdown on Big Tech, the EU imposed a total of €8.2 billion in fines on Google between 2017 and 2019 for antitrust violations.

These penalties sparked a series of protracted legal battles.