A French court of appeals upheld a large fine filed against Google over its handling of advertisers.
The 150 million euro fine, which converts into $167 million in U.S. currency, was filed by the French Competition Authority in 2019 and was the first of many filed by French regulators against the Big Tech company.
“Following the [French Competition Authority’s] original decision, we already made some changes to make these policies even clearer and will now study the court’s ruling in detail and consider our next steps,” a spokesperson from Google told Reuters on Thursday. The spokesperson did not elaborate further on what those changes entailed.
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Although the court of appeals upheld the fines, the court also decided to overturn two of the French antitrust watchdog’s orders against Google, the spokesperson claimed. These included an order compelling Google to create a tool for French users to file complaints and another order requiring Google to release a report on the websites whose Google Ad accounts were suspended.
The fines were in response to the watchdog scrutinizing what it described as “anti-competitive behavior,” such as the unclear nature of Google Ads on its search results.
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French regulators have fined Google several times since 2019. The watchdog fined Google 220 million euros, or $268 million, in June 2021 over advertising practices that “penalized competition in the emerging advertising market.” France’s data privacy watchdog, CNIL, fined Google in January of this year over its approach to online trackers, known as “cookies.”
A Google spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
