Vestager’s antitrust victory against Google: Welcome, but there’s danger in this dragging on and on and on

Time can be a powerful ally for Big Tech in its battle against the EU’s doughty competition watchdog, writes James Moore

Victorious against Google: the EU’s chief competition watchdog Margrethe Vestager (AFP/Getty)

Hey Google! Tell me how much you’ve actually paid into EU coffers?

There are grounds for thinking that its money cup may soon be running over. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s doughty competition commissioner, has claimed a victory in her long-running, and much needed, battle to bring Big Tech to heel, or at least to clip its over-large wings a bit.

The EU’s General Court has slapped down the tech giant’s appeal against a €2.42bn (£2.1bn) antitrust fine. The penalty was imposed after Google was found to have abused its dominant position to the detriment of rivals to its shopping service.

The case is but one of a dizzying array brought by Ms Vestager’s department against Google and its Silicon Valley peers for a variety of alleged competition-related sins. They are often quite complex and technical. But don’t be fooled: they all matter.

Google is potentially on the hook for €8.25bn in total. It faces two other real nasties: one involving its Android mobile operating system, the other homing in on its AdSense advertising service.

It has been suggested that Vestager may have even stronger arguments in these cases. So this may not be her last victory.

What may surprise you, given how long the cases have been hanging around for, is that this is the first time a European court has ruled on an antitrust case against Google.

The only thing we can say with absolute certainty is that it won’t be the last, absent a change of heart from one or the other side.

There is no firm word (yet) on whether the shopping case will be appealed to the EU’s Court of Justice, which is its highest legal body. But it’s the racing certainty of all racing certainties that it will be.

Now, it doesn’t require a lawyer to understand the necessity of what the Americans like to call “due process”. It matters, especially when you consider the fondness of governments for riding roughshod over the rights of individuals, for whom any battle is inevitably fought uphill.

But what’s good for the goose obviously has to be good for the gander, up to and including golden ganders like Google and its shareholders.

Trouble is, there is a case to be made that due process has become too much process when it comes to big competition cases brought against enormous, over-mighty institutions.

In many ways, time is a greater ally to these companies than even the best lawyers money can buy – this ruling is the culmination of a seven-year investigation.

True, it doesn’t seem likely that Vestager will leave any time soon. She has staked her reputation, and legacy, on what is a worthy crusade, especially from the perspective of Google’s smaller competitors and – at the end of the day – the consumer.

They even have grounds for hope that this may put some oomph into some long-dormant cases focusing on the search king.

But times change, and so do people, and so do the political winds.

What if Ms Vestager were, for whatever reason, to be replaced by a less feisty commissioner, one more sympathetic to big corporates or less keen on the long and grinding process required to take on these monoliths?

It is also worth pointing out that, while the shopping fine is a big one, it still represents only a small fraction – about 2.5 per cent – of Google’s annual turnover.

A number that big will still hurt. No corporate likes to lose that sort of money. But think of it more in terms of a splinter in the big toe rather than a sprained ankle. A welcome splinter all the same. This was still a good win for the watchdogs.