Latest news with #CJEU
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Google faces setback as EU court adviser backs antitrust regulators
By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Alphabet's Google faced a potential setback on Thursday as an adviser to Europe's highest court sided with EU antitrust regulators in the company's fight against a record 4.34 billion euro ($4.98 billion) fine levied seven years ago. The European Commission in its 2018 decision said Google had used its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. A lower tribunal endorsed the EU finding in 2022 but trimmed the fine to 4.1 billion euros, prompting Google to appeal to Europe's top court. Advocate-General at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Juliane Kokott, in her non-binding opinion, advised the court to dismiss Google's appeal and confirm the reduced fine set by the lower tribunal. "The legal arguments put forward by Google are ineffective," she said. Kokott dismissed Google's argument that regulators should compare Google with a rival in assessing the situation. "It is not realistic, in the present case, to compare the situation of Google with that of a hypothetical as-efficient competitor. Google held a dominant position in several markets of the Android-ecosystem and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure that users used Google Search," she said. Judges, who usually follow four out of five such non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Android has created more choice for everyone and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world," a Google spokesperson said on Thursday. "We are disappointed with the Opinion which, if it were followed by the Court, would discourage investment in open platforms and harm Android users, partners and app developers." Regulators said Google's illegal practices dated back to 2011, as it required manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and its Chrome browser together with its Google Play app store on their Android devices. It paid them to pre-install only Google Search and blocked them from using rival Android systems. Google's Android system, which it lets device makers use for free, runs about 73% of the world's smartphones, according to Statcounter. The world's most popular internet search engine has racked up a total of 8.25 billion euros in fines linked to three investigations stretching back more than a decade, while other probes are ongoing. The case is C-738/22 P Google and Alphabet v Commission. ($1 = 0.8726 euros) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
Google faces setback as EU court adviser backs antitrust regulators
BRUSSELS :Alphabet's Google faced a potential setback on Thursday as an adviser to Europe's highest court sided with EU antitrust regulators in the company's fight against a record 4.34 billion euro ($4.98 billion) fine levied seven years ago. The European Commission in its 2018 decision said Google had used its Android mobile operating system to block rivals. A lower tribunal endorsed the EU finding in 2022 but trimmed the fine to 4.1 billion euros, prompting Google to appeal to Europe's top court. Advocate-General at the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Juliane Kokott, in her non-binding opinion, advised the court to dismiss Google's appeal and confirm the reduced fine set by the lower tribunal. "The legal arguments put forward by Google are ineffective," she said. Kokott dismissed Google's argument that regulators should compare Google with a rival in assessing the situation. "It is not realistic, in the present case, to compare the situation of Google with that of a hypothetical as-efficient competitor. Google held a dominant position in several markets of the Android-ecosystem and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure that users used Google Search," she said. Judges, who usually follow four out of five such non-binding opinions, will rule in the coming months. "Android has created more choice for everyone and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world," a Google spokesperson said on Thursday. "We are disappointed with the Opinion which, if it were followed by the Court, would discourage investment in open platforms and harm Android users, partners and app developers." Regulators said Google's illegal practices dated back to 2011, as it required manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and its Chrome browser together with its Google Play app store on their Android devices. It paid them to pre-install only Google Search and blocked them from using rival Android systems. Google's Android system, which it lets device makers use for free, runs about 73 per cent of the world's smartphones, according to Statcounter. The world's most popular internet search engine has racked up a total of 8.25 billion euros in fines linked to three investigations stretching back more than a decade, while other probes are ongoing. The case is C-738/22 P Google and Alphabet v Commission. ($1 = 0.8726 euros)
Budapest Times
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Budapest Times
Hankó: Brussels sees sexual propaganda as more important than the protection of children
Balázs Hankó, the minister of culture and innovation, said in Luxembourg on Thursday that Brussels sees sexual propaganda as more important than the protection of children, 'but we don't agree with that.' Commenting on an opinion published by the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) saying that Hungary's child protection law infringed on EU law, Hankó said 'Brussels launched a lawsuit against Hungary because we … enshrined in the Fundamental Law our view that the protection of children is the top priority and we say no to continued gender activism in schools, kindergartens, the streets, public spaces and the media.' 'While the CJEU sees gender propaganda as a fundamental value of the EU, the Hungarian government sees the protection of families as a core value,' he said. 'The court is engaging all sorts of legal obstacles and legalese when it says that the benefits of media, advertising and electronic services are more important than the protection of our children,' Hankó said. Hungary's stance is clear, he said: the sexual education of children is in the hands of the parents, 'and gender activists and sexual propaganda has nothing to do with it. The lawsuit continues; we will continue to stand up for our children and families,' he said. Hanko insisted that 'Brussels and gender propaganda' had 'overtaken' the CJEU. He said Hungary was ready to 'shoulder the legal costs' of the 16 member states which earlier joined the EC lawsuit, 'because the protection of children comes before everything else'. 'The interference of Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission, the European Parliament manipulated by Manfred Weber, and the 16 states that joined [the lawsuit] will be in vain. We are ready to do everything in our power for our children and normality,' Hankó said. He said that normality meant 'that we can determine who we want to live with, that we say no to illegal migration, no to gender propaganda, and no to the fast-tracked EU integration of Ukraine, which are contrary to Hungarian socio-economic interests.'
Irish Examiner
05-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Overall tax take up 8.5% as corporation taxes drop
Tax receipts for the first five months of the year rose to €38.2bn, an 8.5% increase on the same period last year. The latest Exchequer Returns figures show the State enjoyed a €4bn surplus to the end of May, an improvement of €3.2bn on 2024. However, when receipts arising from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling for the Apple Tax Case are excluded, the underlying position was a surplus of €0.7bn, a decrease of €0.1bn on the same period last year. Income tax receipts of €2.8bn were collected in May with income tax receipts so far this year amounting to €14.5bn up 4.5% on last year. Corporation tax receipts of €2.5bn were collected in May, down by €1.1bn on the same month last year. The Department of Finance said this reflects once-off factors that boosted May 2024 receipts, distorting the year-on-year comparison. May is a VAT-due month and receipts of €3.5bn were up on the same month last year by €0.1bn. On a cumulative basis, receipts of €7.4bn were up by €1.1bn on the same period last year. When once-off CJEU revenues are excluded, cumulative corporation tax receipts to end-May amounted to €5.7bn, down by €0.6bn (9.4%) on the same period last year. Reacting to the figures, the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe said the most notable feature of the returns was the 'marked' year-on-year drop in corporation taxes. "While this reflects once-off factors last year, it nonetheless highlights the degree of concentration in the corporate tax base, wherein a small number of multinational firms can significantly impact on the overall tax yield," he said. 'In a context of unprecedented uncertainty in the international economic landscape, this serves as a timely reminder of Ireland's exposure to changes in the global trading environment, and of the vital importance of adhering to a sensible and sustainable budgetary strategy.'
Russia Today
15-05-2025
- Business
- Russia Today
Court rules on von der Leyen's secret Covid vaccine deal messages
The European Commission wrongly denied the media access to secret text messages between its president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the CEO of pharma giant Pfizer, exchanged during negotiations of a multi-billion dollar Covid-19 vaccine deal, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday. The so-called 'Pfizergate' case centers on a 2021 interview von der Leyen gave to the New York Times (NYT) in which she claimed she had been negotiating a deal for 900 million COVID vaccine shots with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla via sms messages. The NYT subsequently filed an access request for the messages, to which the EC claimed the texts, which have never been released, were not in its possession. The court ruled that the EC 'cannot merely state that it does not hold the requested documents but must provide credible explanations enabling the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found.' It also criticized the Commission for failing to justify why the texts were not retained and to clarify how they were deleted. In response, the EC said it recognized the need for greater transparency and promised to issue a new decision with more detailed reasoning. It did not, however, commit to releasing the messages in question. The ruling can be appealed to the European Court of Justice. A similar CJEU judgment last July found that the EC lacked transparency in how it negotiated vaccine contracts with Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The deals, signed in 2020 and 2021 and worth approximately €2.7 billion ($3 billion), were shielded from disclosure to European Parliament members on the grounds of protecting commercial interests.
