Google wins Safari browser tracking case in UK; loses appeal in EU shopping antitrust case

The UK Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Google alleging that the US tech giant "illegally" tracked the personal information of millions of iPhone users, Sputnik reported. Richard Lloyd, former executive director of the technology magazine Which?, filed the legal case in 2018, accusing Google of illegally misusing the data of millions of iPhone users through clandestine tracking and collation of information about internet usage on iPhones' Safari browser, known as the "Safari workaround."

According to Sputnik, Lloyd's lawsuit was dismissed by the Supreme Court panel because he was unable to demonstrate that all of the individuals he was representing suffered any material damage or distress as a result of Google's alleged data breach. On Wednesday, 10 November, a panel of five Supreme Court judges unanimously allowed Google's appeal against the UK Court of Appeal's 2019 judgment on the Safari Browser Tracking case. If Google had lost the lawsuit, it would have had to pay £750 ($1,000) in compensation to all iPhone users for the company's alleged secret tracking. It would amount to over £3 billion.

Between 2011 and 2012, Google was chastised for claiming to have collected web browsing data from iPhone users. Previously, the company insisted that the Safari browser's default privacy settings on Macs, iPhones, and iPads protect users from such tracking. Meanwhile, UK media outlets have speculated that Wednesday's decision may be followed by other data protection cases, which will almost certainly result in lawsuits being filed against a number of tech behemoths, including Facebook and TikTok.

Google loses appeal in EU shopping antitrust case, fine upheld

In another recent development, Google lost its appeal worth €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) antitrust fine for allegedly undermining smaller shopping search services, the first in a trilogy of European Union court battles over cases that set the course for the EU's campaign to rein in Silicon Valley, Bloomberg reported. While the regulator was largely vindicated in the ruling, judges ruled that regulators had failed to prove that Google had harmed the general search market, overturning the EU's finding of a breach, according to the media agency.  Reportedly, the decision is solely aimed at the shopping-search service.

The EU General Court in Luxembourg ruled on Wednesday, November 10, that Google, the US search giant violated competition rules and deserved the penalty imposed by the European Commission in 2017.

According to Bloomberg, the court's decision comes in the midst of the EU's separate efforts to create new rules that will bind powerful corporations. These rules, which are now in the final stages of negotiation, were drafted in response to regulators' growing frustration with the limits of antitrust investigations in causing real changes in big tech's behaviour. In addition to the fine, according to the reports, in 2017 Google was ordered to make changes to the way it displays shopping search results, which could allow competitors to take advantage of valuable Ad space on search pages. Smaller search engines have complained that the EU has never pushed Google to go far enough to help them attract enough traffic. Officials from the EU argued that all they can do is create the conditions for businesses to compete, Bloomberg reported.

Google is also appealing against two more antitrust fines amounting to €8.25 billion ($9.5 billion) which is a drop in the ocean for its parent company Alphabet Inc., which earned $182 billion in revenue last year, AP reported.

(With inputs from agencies)

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