Google wins legal challenge against 1.49bn euro fine

Google has won its challenge against a €1.49bn (£1.26bn) fine from the EU for blocking rival online search advertisers.

The bloc accused Google of abusing its market dominance by restricting third-party rivals from displaying search ads between 2006 and 2016.

While Europe's second-top court upheld much of the European Commission's findings, it chose to annul the fine.

It comes a week after the EU's highest court upheld a 2.42bn euro fine against Google over its shopping service.

Google's ad tech business has run into problems with multiple regulators worldwide.

Earlier this month, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) provisionally found it uses anti-competitive practices to dominate the market.

The US government is also taking the tech giant to court over the same issue, with prosecutors alleging its parent company, Alphabet, illegally operates a monopoly in the market.

Alphabet has argued its market dominance is due to the effectiveness of its products.