Google urges EU top court to back ruling scrapping $1.7 billion antitrust fine

LUXEMBOURG, July 15 : Alphabet unit Google on Wednesday urged Europe's top court to dismiss EU antitrust regulators' appeal against a lower court ruling that scrapped a €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) fine, saying the regulators' arguments were flawed.The dispute reached the Court of Justice of the European Union after regulators appealed a 2024 General Court ruling that annulled the fine imposed on Google in 2019. The lower court cited errors in the European Commission's assessment of the case.The Commission, the EU's competition watchdog, said Google used restrictive clauses in contracts with publishers that prevented rivals from placing search advertisements on the publishers' websites, reinforcing Google's dominance in online search advertising.The Commission said the practices ran from 2