06:35 AM EDT, 09/18/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) unit Google ( GOOG ) has won its appeal against a 1.49-billion-euro ($1.66 billion) fine imposed by the European Commission about five years ago for alleged abusive practices in online advertising.

The European Union's General Court on Wednesday annulled a 2019 decision by the commission to penalize the search engine giant for breaching antitrust rules. At the time, the EU's executive arm claimed that Google ( GOOG ) imposed several restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites, thus abusing its market dominant position and preventing rivals from placing their own search adverts on those websites.

The General Court upheld the majority of the commission's findings in the case, but noted that it "failed to take into consideration all the relevant circumstances" in its assessment of the duration of the contract clauses that it deemed abusive.

Alphabet's shares were up 0.7% in premarket activity.

In an emailed statement to MT Newswires, a spokesperson for Google ( GOOG ) said the search engine giant is "pleased" that the court "recognized errors in the original decision" and canceled the fine. Google ( GOOG ) had already made changes to its contracts in 2016 to remove the "relevant provisions" before the Commission's 2019 decision, according to the spokesperson.

A spokesperson for the European Commission told MT Newswires that the competition enforcer will carefully study the court's judgment and reflect on the next possible steps.

Last week, the Court of Justice dismissed Google's ( GOOG ) appeal to overturn a penalty of 2.4 billion euros, which was imposed by the commission in 2017, for allegedly giving its own shopping recommendations an unfair advantage over smaller European rivals in search results.

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