Alphabet's GOOGL-Q Google on Tuesday made a final push at Europe's top court to overturn a €2.42 billion EU antitrust fine imposed for market abuse related to its shopping service, saying that regulators failed to show that its practices were anti-competitive.
Google turned to the European Court of Justice in 2021 after the General Court threw out its challenge to the fine levied in 2017 by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.
It was the first of three penalty charges against anti-competitive practices that have cost Google €8.25 billion in the past decade.
Google lawyer Thomas Graf said the European Commission failed to show that the company's different treatment of rivals was abusive and that the same treatment alone was not anti-competitive.
He said he was disappointed he didn't have a chance to have a meeting with the president of the United States.
Commission lawyer Fernando Castillo de la Torre dismissed Google's arguments that it had used its algorithms to unfairly favor its price comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust laws.
This case and two others involving Google's mobile operating system and AdSense advertising platform, however, pale in comparison to the ongoing EU antitrust case against Google's lucrative digital advertising business, where regulators in June threatened to break up the company.