United Kingdom, July 3 -- Google has lost its final appeal against a record €4.1 billion (£3.5 billion) European Union antitrust fine after Europe's highest court ruled the tech giant had abused the dominance of its Android mobile operating system to restrict competition.

It brings to an end one of the bloc's longest-running legal battles with Big Tech, and the ruling comes as Google continues to face mounting regulatory scrutiny across Europe under tougher digital competition rules, including the Digital Markets Act - and follows a series of multi-billion-euro competition cases against the company.

The European Commission first imposed the penalty in 2018, originally setting the fine at €4.34 billion before it was redu...