The fine was issued in 2019 after the European Commission (EC) found that Google had violated competition rules between 2006 and 2016 in its search ads business|Noah_Loverbear|CC BY-SA 3.0

The European Union’s (EU) General Court, its second-highest judiciary, overturned a $1.7 billion antitrust fine imposed on Google by EU regulators over its market dominance in web advertisements.

The EU can appeal the court’s ruling to its highest court but has not confirmed its intentions.

The fine was issued in 2019 after the European Commission (EC) found that Google violated competition rules in its search ads business between 2006 and 2016. The EU court ruling upheld most EC findings but annulled the financial penalty.

Google welcomed the decision, stating that it had amended its ad business contracts since 2016 and changed its ad practices.

The same court also upheld Qualcomm’s 2019 antitrust penalty, slightly reducing the fine from $271 million (242 million euros) to around $266 million (238.7 million euros).