EU's $1.7 billion antitrust fine against Google's ad product is challenged in court and upheld.

• The European Union's second-highest court ruled on Wednesday that the 1.5 billion euro ($1.67 billion) antitrust fine imposed on Google by regulators should be overturned.
• In 2019, the European Commission accused Google of violating its market dominance with AdSense for Search.

The European Union's second-highest court ruled on Wednesday to annul the 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) fine imposed on Google by regulators, in agreement with the U.S. tech giant's challenge to the decision.

In 2019, the European Commission accused Google of abusing its market power with AdSense for Search, a product that enabled website owners to display ads on their search results pages.

Advertisers can use Google as a mediator to display ads on third-party websites through search.

The commission claimed that Google violated its market power by imposing restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites, thereby preventing competitors from placing their search ads on these websites.

At the time, Google was fined 1.49 billion euros by the commission, prompting the company to appeal and send the case to the EU's General Court.

The General Court upheld most of the findings but annulled the decision imposing a nearly 1.5 billion euro fine.

The court found that the commission did not consider all relevant circumstances when assessing the duration of the abusive contract clauses.

A Google spokesperson told CNBC that it would review the full decision closely.

The case pertains to a specific category of text-based search advertisements that were displayed on a limited number of websites. In 2016, we made modifications to our contracts to remove the relevant clauses, prior to the Commission's ruling. We are pleased that the court has acknowledged the flaws in the initial decision and has reversed the penalty.

The commission's spokesperson acknowledged the judgment and will consider the potential next actions.

If the commission appeals this decision, it will be sent to the European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court.

Recently, a number of court cases concerning the EU and U.S. tech companies have been concluded.

The ECJ upheld a 2.4 billion euro fine on Google for abusing its dominant position and ruled that Apple must pay 13 billion euros in back taxes to Ireland, ending a decade-long case.