Google faces renewed challenge over $1.66bn advertising fine Court judges have begun deliberations · Verdict Shubhendu Vimal Fri, November 13, 2026 at 6:19 AM EST 2 min read GOOGN 0.00% MSFT -1.82% EXPE 0.00% DTE.DE +0.34% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Google faces renewed legal pressure after a European Union (EU) court adviser recommended overturning the ruling that annulled its €1.5bn ($1.66bn) online advertising penalty in Europe.
Advocate General Juliane Kokott has advised the Court of Justice of the EU to set aside the General Court's September 2024 judgment and return the case for a new ruling.
The European Commission appealed after the General Court annulled the fine.
The case concerns Google's AdSense for Search service, which enables website operators with integrated search engines to display Google Search adverts and receive part of the resulting revenue.
The Commission began proceedings in July 2016 following complaints, including one initially lodged with Germany's Federal Cartel Office and later complaints from Microsoft, Expedia, and Deutsche Telekom.
It examined three clauses in Google's Google Services Agreements: exclusivity, placement, and prior authorisation provisions.
The agreements contained clauses that restricted or prevented publishers from displaying adverts from competing platforms. The model templates used by Google since March 2009 contained those clauses.
In March 2019, the Commission found that Google had committed three infringements under the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU between 2006 and 2016.
The infringements were treated as one continuous breach.
Google was fined €1.49bn, including €130.1m for which Alphabet, Google's parent company, was jointly and severally liable.
Google removed or amended the contested clauses in September 2016.
The General Court annulled the Commission's decision on 18 September 2024, finding that the authority had not sufficiently demonstrated the clauses' exclusionary effects and, consequently, the alleged abuse of a dominant position.
Its concerns included the assessment of the duration of the contractual clauses and their market coverage in 2016.
Kokott said the tribunal had applied excessive evidentiary requirements to the Commission's assessment of contract duration.
She stated that the authority only needed to assess cumulatively whether contracts significant to competition on the relevant market had given rise to, or could have given rise to, collective exclusionary effects.
She recommended that the case be referred back to the General Court, which must examine Google's and Alphabet's remaining objections to the fine's calculation.
Any revised penalty should be lower because the Commission did not appeal the finding concerning insufficiently demonstrated exclusionary effects in 2016.
The Advocate General's opinion is non-binding. The Court's judges are beginning their deliberations, with a final judgment due at a later date.
"Google faces renewed challenge over $1.66bn advertising fine" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.
