The tech giant said it
would go to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, after the
General Court confirmed in November a decision by the European Commission in
2017.
At the time, the fine
was the European Union's biggest ever. But it was later exceeded by a EUR 4.3
billion fine against Google over its Android smartphone operating system.
"After careful consideration, we have
decided to appeal the General Court's decision because we feel there are areas
that require legal clarification from the European Court of Justice," a
short statement by the company said.
The case centres on Google's shopping
service and is one of three against the search engine giant currently moving
through the EU's drawn-out appeals system.
The new appeal could take up to two years
to reach an outcome, stretching the case out to well more than a decade after
the commission launched its investigation in 2010.
The court confirmation on Google Shopping
was a win for the EU's anti-trust supremo Margrethe Vestager, who burst onto
the scene in Brussels by scrapping her predecessor's more conciliatory approach
to the US Internet giant.
Vestager had lost in the same court in a
different major case, , Apple and Ireland, in which her teams had ordered the
iPhone maker to repay EUR 13 billion plus interest to the Irish taxpayer. The EU
has appealed that ruling.
The fine for Google came after seven years
of investigation launched by complaints from other price-comparison services
that saw traffic plummet against Google Shopping.
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