Mashable: The original $4.33 billion fine was cut to $3.99 billion.

On Wednesday, a European court largely rejected Google's appeal of a record-breaking fine for restricting competition and reducing consumer choice through the dominance of its mobile Android operating system. The fine amounts to nearly $4 billion, and Google's parent company, Alphabet, will be responsible for paying it. Adding to the troubles, South Korean authorities said on Wednesday that the search giant and Meta had been fined a total of $71.8 million (100 billion KRW) for breaking the country's privacy rules.

The regulator stated in its statement that Google and Meta's collection of user data across Google's and Meta's properties and across third-party properties and applications was done without proper permission.

The EU's executive Commission's decision to punish Google in 2018 was mostly upheld by the General Court of the European Court of Justice. However, the original $4.33 billion fine was cut to $3.99 billion.

According to the initial decision issued by the European Commission, Google violated EU regulations by forcing smartphone makers to give a bundle of pre-installed Google programs in its Play Store, including YouTube, Maps, Gmail, Google Search, and Chrome. According to the ruling, Google also forbade the distribution of customized versions of Android.

The original $4.33 billion judgment was reduced when the court threw out a claim that Google had made deals with manufacturers to ship products with Google Search already installed instead of other search engines.

In 2017, Google was fined $2.42 billion for favoring its own comparison shopping advertising over those of its rivals. After losing an appeal last year, the firm has filed yet another appeal with the highest court in the European Union.

The company has previously stated that low-cost phones and increased rivalry with Apple are direct results of Android's free and open-source nature. Android has surpassed Apple's iOS as the preferred smartphone OS.

After the decision was made public, a representative of the company said that they were disappointed that the Court did not completely overturn the decision.

The European Union consumer group BEUC, which argued for the commission in the Luxembourg court, said that this decision "confirms that European consumers must have a real choice between search engines and browsers on mobile devices."

The 27 countries that make up the European Union have been at the forefront of a worldwide movement to rein in tech giants. This record-high fine is just one of three antitrust penalties against Google between 2017 and 2019 that add up to more than $8 billion.