UK's top court blocks class action lawsuit against Google

The top court in Britain has blocked a class action against Google, accused of illegally tracking millions of iPhone users.

The Supreme Court said in a statement that it "unanimously dismisses" the legal action brought by campaigners against the US-based tech giant on behalf of 4.4 million people in England and Wales.

The country's first such data privacy case is bound to upset a string of similar claims against technology giants such as Facebook and TikTok, already waiting in the wings.

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If the court had allowed the lawsuit to proceed, a fine worth 3.2 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) would have been imposed on Google in the hotly-anticipated judgment.

However, Google suffered a major setback after Europe's second-highest court dismissed its challenge to an EU antitrust ruling and 2.42 billion euro ($2.8 billion) fine in a major win for EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager.

The matter could be challenged again, however, if Google decides to turn to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice, for a final say.

The case centres on Google's shopping service and is one of three against the search engine giant currently moving through the EU's drawn-out appeals system.

The shopping case was the first of a trio of decisions that have seen Google rack up a total of 8.25 billion euros in EU antitrust fines in the last decade.

"The General Court largely dismisses Google's action against the decision of the Commission finding that Google abused its dominant position by favouring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services," the Court said.

(With inputs from agencies)