The Spanish Competition Authority rejects the initiation of an infringement procedure against a Big Tech company and clarifies in its decision the criteria under which dominant companies can exclude certain clients from their services (Eurozener / Google)

In recent years GOOGLE LLC (GOOGLE) has faced several infringement procedures before EU National Competition Authorities and the European Commission with regards to various claims of anticompetitive behavior in relation to abuse of its dominant position in European markets. Recently, GOOGLE faced a claim brought to the Spanish Competition Authority (CNMC), for alleged abusive discriminatory behavior in alleged breach of Article 2 LDC and Article 102 TFEU. In this case, and contrary to the outcome in other infringement proceedings (Case AT.39740 [1], Case A529-ICA [2]or Decision 19-D-26 [3]), the CNMC decided to shelve the preliminary investigation initiated. The abuse of dominant position that the CNMC assessed referred to a potential refusal to provide GOOGLE’S online advertising