Google will begin a key legal battle with the European Commission this week when its lawyers appeal against a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine, the first of a trio of penalties which could cost the company €8.2bn in total.

The search giant has been handed three different fines by the EU since 2017 over allegations that it favoured its own shopping results over results from rivals, that its Android software unfairly promoted its own apps, and that it blocked adverts from rival search engines.

A hearing over a €2.4bn fine levied against the business over its shopping results will take place between Feb 12 and Feb 14 in the Luxembourg-based General Court.

The appeal will mark the start of Google’s legal attempt to overturn the fine after nearly 10 years of antitrust allegations from the EU.

The EU alleged that Google prominently featured products from its own Shopping search engine in search results, demoting products surfaced by rival sites.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager claimed in 2017 that “Google has given its own comparison shopping service an illegal advantage by abusing its dominance in general Internet search. It has promoted its own service, and demoted rival services. It has harmed competition and consumers. That’s illegal under EU antitrust rules.”

Google neared a settlement with the European Commission in 2014 but the investigation into the case was reopened following “very, very negative” responses from the complainants in the case, Ms Vestager’s predecessor Joaquin Almunia said.

The US company is expected to argue that it improved shopping results for customers and that the European Commission wrongly omitted the presence of Amazon search results in its research on the topic.