The General Court of the European Union ruled in favor of Google on Wednesday, saying it did not need to pay a €1.49 billion ($1.67 billion) fine.

The case stretches back to 2019, when the European Commission said the US tech giant was violating competition regulations by prioritizing its own shopping links in its search results.

Google had argued that it had brought its practices into accordance with EU rules years ago.

"The General Court annuls the Commission's decision in its entirety," the judges said in a statement.

The tech firm said that it was "pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine," Google said in a statement. "We will review the full decision closely."

What was the case about?

The European Commission, which acts as the bloc's antitrust watchdog, said that Google had exclusivity clauses in its contracts with websites that restricted the use of ads from its rivals.

However, Google has argued that it had already altered those clauses to be in line with EU law in 2016.

The EU General Court said that the Commission had "commited errors" is how it assessed those contracts. Their decision can technically be appealed, but only on points of law

The fine was one of three that have been leveled against Google by the EU in the past decade. Last week, the company lost an appeal against another antitrust fine. In that case, the EU successfully argued that the way Google preferences its own shopping links over third party sites hindered competition.

es/sms (AP, dpa)