The lawsuit brought by the US Internet giant Google against a billion-euro fine from the EU Commission has largely failed.
The Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg on Wednesday confirmed a decision by the EU Commission from 2018 to levy a record fine of more than four billion euros on Google for illegal practices with the Android mobile operating system.
However, the court reduced the record fine decided at the time from 4.3 billion euros to around 4.1 billion euros, as the court announced.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) can appeal Wednesday's judgment.
The EU Commission found in 2018 that Google had imposed illegal regulations on smartphone manufacturers and mobile network operators for the use of Android and required them to pre-install certain Google apps.
"In this way, Google used Android to consolidate the market dominance of its search engine," said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, explaining the decision at the time.
Google immediately announced that it wanted to contest the fine.
Google is at odds with the EU competition watchdog on a number of issues.
It was not until 2021 that a Luxembourg EU court confirmed a billion-euro fine by the Brussels competition authorities against the US technology group.
In this case, they came to the conclusion that the company had given its own price comparison service "Google Shopping" an unlawful advantage.
The Federal Cartel Office also has the US group in its sights alongside other Internet giants.
Competition in the future field of the digital economy must be protected in cooperation with the EU Commission, the head of the Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt, has repeatedly emphasized.
Vestager also wants to protect competition in the digital economy.