Brothers in adversity! Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) and Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) both lost their lawsuits in the European Union on the same day.

Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) has been fined a record 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) by the European Union for abusing its monopoly power to suppress competitors in the shopping services sector, and Alphabet Inc. Class C was unable to overturn this ruling. The European Union Court in Luxembourg supported a landmark ruling from 2017, which found that the American tech giant unlawfully used its dominant position in search engines to give higher rankings to its own product listings. EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who took office in 2014, listed Alphabet Inc. Class C as a top priority. Notably on the same day, this commissioner also successfully overturned a lower court ruling in a case involving Apple Inc.'s ($AAPL.US) 13 billion euro tax case in Ireland. The EU antitrust enforcement agency's attention on Alphabet Inc. Class C is not just limited to the company's dominance in search. This case involving shopping services is the first of three fines, the total of which exceeds 8 billion euros. A spokesperson for Alphabet Inc. Class C expressed disappointment with the court's ruling, stating that the proposals made in 2017 to address the EU's concerns would have brought more clicks to other shopping services. Following this shopping case, the company was fined a record 4.3 billion euros in 2018 for alleged restrictive contract clauses that prevented tablet and smartphone manufacturers from adding competitive apps and web browsers on Android devices. Less than a year later, the company was fined 1.49 billion euros for defeating advertising competitors through exclusive agreements with its AdSense for Search product. It is crucial to note that the EU's fourth and possibly final charge against Alphabet Inc. Class C, initiated under Vestager's leadership, could result in the most severe punishment. The Danish commissioner warned that the only way to correct Alphabet Inc. Class C's dominance in the advertising technology sector is to force a separation of the company's business in that field - which would lead EU regulators down a path similar to the one being pursued by the US Justice Department seeking a similar breakup. EU competition regulators hope that Alphabet Inc. Class C's actions will be thoroughly corrected through the comprehensive new regulation introduced last year - the Digital Markets Act.