BRUSSELS, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Europe's second-top court

on Wednesday backed Alphabet unit Google's challenge

against a 1.49 billion euros ($1.66 billion) antitrust fine

imposed five years ago for hindering rivals in online search

advertising.

"The court (...) upheld most of the commission's

assessments, but annulled the decision imposing a fine of almost

1.5 billion euros on Google, on the grounds in particular that

it had failed to take in account all the relevant circumstances

in its assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses

that it had found to be unfair," the Luxembourg-based General

Court said.

The European Commission in 2019 handed down the fine to the

world's most popular internet search engine, one of a trio of

fines that have cost Google a total of 8.25 billion euros.

The case is T-334/19 Google and Alphabet v Commission

(Google AdSense for Search).

($1 = 0.8990 euros)