Google’s AdSense Case Reopens
Juliane Kokott has written opinions before two of Google’s biggest losses in Europe. Now the Court of Justice Advocate General has turned to the one case Google won. On Thursday, November 12, she advised the EU’s top court that the General Court erred in 2024 when it annulled Google’s €1.49 billion AdSense fine, and proposed sending the case back for a fresh ruling.
Key Takeaways
- Advocate General Juliane Kokott said the General Court set the bar too high when it scrapped the 2019 AdSense fine and wants the case reheard.
- She suggested any renewed penalty should be somewhat lower, because one year of the infringement is no longer contested.
- The opinion does not bind the Court of Justice, which usually follows such advice and has not set a ruling date.
Where the Lower Court Went Wrong
The Commission’s case, numbered C-826/24 P on appeal, turns on how long Google’s contract terms bound publishers. The General Court accepted that the clauses could shut out rivals. It still annulled the decision, saying the Commission had not properly assessed the duration of the contracts.
Kokott disagreed. In her view, the lower court had already accepted the exclusionary effects the Commission found, and “thereby imposed excessive requirements as to the scope of the examination of the criterion of duration.” A combined look at the main publisher contracts was enough. Regulators did not need to analyze them one by one.
She proposed setting the 2024 judgment aside and sending the case back to the General Court. If the judges agree, the fine does not return automatically. The lower court must rule again and deal with Google’s remaining arguments.
A Smaller Fine Is Possible
The opinion leaves room for a reduction. The General Court found that exclusionary effects had not been shown for 2016, and the Commission did not appeal that point. Kokott said any penalty should therefore be lower.
That explains why reports describe her as backing most of the fine rather than all of it.
What Google Was Fined For
The case dates back to March 2019. The Commission fined Google €1.49 billion for abusing its dominance in online search advertising brokerage through AdSense for Search. The service let websites with built-in search boxes show Google’s search ads for a share of revenue.
From 2006, Google’s contracts barred these publishers from showing rival search ads. From 2009, a placement clause reserved the best spots for Google’s ads, and a prior-authorization clause gave Google a say over changes. The Commission said the practices ran until 2016, when Google dropped the clauses. The fine equaled 1.29% of Google’s 2018 turnover.
In September 2024, the General Court upheld most of the Commission’s findings but annulled the decision over the duration assessment. The Commission appealed that December.
Google’s Record in Luxembourg
Kokott’s opinions have carried weight in Google’s earlier cases. The Court of Justice confirmed the €2.4 billion Shopping fine in 2024 after she advised it to. In July 2026, it upheld the roughly €4.1 billion Android fine, again in line with her opinion.
AdSense was the only one of Google’s major EU antitrust cases that ended in an outright win for the company. Google has faced six EU antitrust penalties totaling €10.38 billion over almost two decades. It is also contesting a fine of nearly €3 billion in a separate adtech case.
Why Publishers and Regulators Care
If the court follows Kokott, the Commission’s record against Big Tech grows stronger. It would confirm that regulators can judge exclusive contracts as a group instead of proving harm contract by contract. That standard matters as Brussels shifts toward newer rulebooks, from the Digital Markets Act to a proposed Digital Fairness Act aimed at online dark patterns.
For publishers, the case is a reminder of how much Google controls the money behind search. That control is shifting as AI answers change where people click, and some sites already report falling search traffic from Google’s AI features. A final ruling is expected in the coming months.
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