A €890 million fine imposed on Google by the European Union is expected to strengthen compensation claims from businesses across Europe that argue they suffered financial losses because of the company’s market practices.
The penalty, announced last week, is the first issued under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Competition regulators concluded that Google continued to favor its own services in search results, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports listings, giving them an advantage over rival platforms.
The European Commission also found that Google restricted app developers from directing users of the Google Play Store to cheaper payment options outside the platform.
Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition, said digital products should succeed based on quality and consumer choice rather than the control of a search engine.
Google rejected the Commission’s findings. Kent Walker, the company’s president of global affairs, argued that the ruling would force Google to remove popular features such as real-time hotel, flight and pricing information, describing the decision as one that would weaken products instead of improving competition.
The latest penalty comes as several technology-focused companies across Europe have already secured substantial damages from Google through national courts.
In Germany, price comparison website Idealo was awarded €465 million by a Berlin court in November 2025, although the company had originally sought €3.3 billion. Idealo said it would continue pursuing the remainder of its claim, with co-founder Albrecht von Sonntag stating that market abuse should carry meaningful consequences.
The same Berlin case also resulted in Producto GmbH, operator of Testberichte.de, receiving about €107 million after initially seeking €290 million in damages.
In Italy, Moltiply Group’s subsidiary 7Pixel filed a €2.97 billion damages claim in 2025, arguing that Google’s practices harmed its price comparison service, Trovaprezzi.it. In Sweden, Klarna-owned PriceRunner secured approximately €1.7 billion in damages from a Stockholm court in July 2026.
Most of these legal actions were based on the European Commission’s 2017 Google Shopping decision, which found the company had abused its dominant market position by favoring its own comparison shopping service. Because that earlier ruling had already established the violation, companies bringing lawsuits only needed to demonstrate the financial losses they suffered.
Legal experts believe the new DMA decision could strengthen future claims by challenging Google’s long-standing argument that it corrected the issues after the 2017 ruling. The Commission’s latest findings indicate that similar conduct continued in subsequent years, making it more difficult for the company to argue that any competitive harm was temporary.
The decision may also expand the period for w
You must be logged in to post a comment Login