Google's therefore likely to be happy about the fact that it's just had a fine overturned by a European court less because of the money and more because of the message. The Alphabet-owned tech giant has just won its appeal against a previous European Commission (EC) court ruling and had its €1.

Google has avoided a European Union $1.7 billion antitrust penalty over its AdSense advertising platform thanks to a Wednesday ruling from the EU General Court. The court annulled the European Commission fine.

In an effort to quell monopoly concerns in the EU, Google reportedly offered to sell its AdX advertising marketplace. Sources told Reuters that European publishers rejected Google's offer, arguing that the company would have to divest more in order to dismantle the conflicts of interest in its online advertising operations.