Google Facing at Least EUR 12 Billion in Civil Claims Across Europe
Google is trending for the wrong reasons. Unimpressed price-comparison websites across Europe are lining up against the tech giant, wanting to hold it liable for a sum of about EUR 12 billion. The sites allege that Google used its dominance in searches to unfairly divert users away from them and into its own pockets. It is a David v. Goliath situation, except in this case, Goliath might just get stung.
Google has long been on the run from shopping lawsuits ever since the EU Commission triggered a major EUR 2.4 billion fine against them back in 2017 for abuse of their search engine monopoly. Can you imagine using their power to unfairly promote their own shopping platform? Google resisted, delaying the inevitable for years with appeals. But last year, the hammer of justice did fall: the tribunal upheld the antitrust hit. Now, EU plaintiffs with a quick-witted lawyer in hand have their golden ticket; they no longer need to prove Google’s guilt all over again before a court of law. The floodgates are wide open, and the lawsuits are flowing forth!
The brewing storm of lawsuits takes shape over Europe. Bloomberg has laid bare a network of 12 interrelated civil proceedings operating in seven nations, involving claims of gargantuan sums. Some remain unknown owing to secrecy, while the known value of just nine of these claims far exceeds a colossus of €12 billion (about Rs. 1,13,270 crore): Who will shelter through the storm?
Google finds itself before a fresh judicial court in Europe, brought about by an onslaught of lawsuits. These suits stand out differently from the rest, being potential domino effects. Should the defendants be put through an unfavorable judgement here, innumerable others would be greatly emboldened to sue the tech giant, thus increasing the already hefty EU fines already levied against them.
“Imagine a harsh tempest, not simply a glancing breeze. That is the true possibility for companies that have met with EU antitrust penalties. Follow-on actions often pursue damages way more than the amount of the initial fine. That is not all. In fact, even after the slap on the wrist from the EU, these companies face the US DOJ pushing hard for a surgical strike-a forced spin-off of key assets like advertising towers and search browser-from defeats in prior antitrust showdowns. It’s multi-front warfare, a legal hydra threatening to consume the whole enterprise.”
Worth somewhere beyond $1.85 trillion, Google brushes off an array of civil lawsuits from Europe as unmeriting. The reluctant party is not revealing specifics, such as how many claims or how large the claims are, especially following an antitrust decision, so one can only try to guess how much potential damage these lawsuits might inflict.
Our theater is about to open its courtroom doors. June is the curtain call, with one London-based judge going to try a massive GBP 1 billion (that is, one and a half billion dollars) case brought by Kelkoo, a British website and the ghost of Foundem. Fast forward to September, and it is to Amsterdam that the scene shifts, where Compare Group is to enter the legal plot and let their arguments reverberate through the corridors of the court.
The month of October in Hamburg and the month of November in Berlin shall be considered battlegrounds for Google, which will face fire from a series of antitrust claims. Axel Springer’s Idealo leads proceedings with its monumental lawsuit worth EUR 3.3 billion. Just behind are Pricerunner, now part of Klarna, pushing for the EUR 2.1 billion mark. To add to Google’s dilemma, competing price search engine Ceneo from Poland is demanding payment of EUR 500 million. It shall be these high-statutes cases which will put the legal defenses of the search giant to test.
As dust settles, the battles enter the courts. Just last month, in Amsterdam, an extraordinary claim amounting to EUR 900 million was lodged against Google. LitFin, the litigator bringing the claim, represents a coalition of companies, including PreisRoboter, a now-defunct German price comparison site, and KuantoKusta, from Portugal. But that’s not all. Adding fuel to the fire, Italy’s Moltiply Group SA just declared an enormous claim of EUR 2.97 billion, alleging that its comparison shopping website Trovaprezzi had been crippled with losses from 2010 to 2017 by Google’s hands. So the drama in the courtroom is just beginning.
Tick-tock, time is fleeting, and Google’s antitrust woes are quickly spiraling. Dissatisfied with their original complaints, the plaintiffs have come back for more accusations and are amassing litigation heavy-hitters in the form of funders. Their principal argument? That in spite of every antitrust law, the tech giant is manipulating searches and blatantly disobeying the 2017 EU decision, thereby practically cementing an unfair monopoly over web traffic and the revenues derived from it.
The Idealo co-founder Albrecht von Sonntag spoke emphatically. Having just set a precedent in the company’s fight against abusive practices by claims worth €3.3 billion (about Rs. 31,155 crore), in February, he declared: “We’re demanding real consequences for abusive behavior. The internet – and by extension, our wallets and the European economy – is at stake. Monopolies can’t be allowed to choke fair competition and consumer choice.” The co-founder had depicted the case as much more than a legal one, as this was a fight for a just and open internet.
Google vehemently negates any wrongdoing on its part, arguing both the 2017 ad display for price comparison sites and Barrier Pay were highly successful. According to a company spokesperson, indeed Google is treating its own shopping service and its competitors on equal footing. The figures do tell the story: just 7 price comparison websites made use of Google’s ad display in 2017, compared today to more than 1,550 across Europe.
“These are blatant money-shaking lawsuits. Instead of building their own inventions, these companies are now trying to win in court,” a Google spokesperson said, shooting back.
Google has been put through the wringer in the EU with close to EUR 8 billion worth of antitrust fines coming its way since 2017. That amount could fund a small country, mind you! Parking tickets are some EUR 25. But we are talking price comparison fines of EUR 2.4 billion, EUR 4.34 billion in Android system mischief, and EUR 1.49 billion in advertising mischief. Meanwhile, Google is fighting back; they’ve succeeded in getting one fine annulled, though there might be a resurrection of the now-barred one by the EU! The Android fine is under appeal while already cut down by a court sympathetic to Google’s side of this matter. It’s been about a huge play fighting with the European authorities for the very rules that define the game in digital land.
There is much yet to be played out within the courtroom setting, for such a Commission approval alone isn’t so much of a surety. Plaintiffs need to somehow furnish evidence of Google’s having had an impact on their declining revenues-a tightrope walk between legalities, according to Professor Kersting; with a steep fall ahead.
“Companies can’t go pointing fingers. They must have the opportunity to prove that it was neither a bad decision on their part nor the result of a turbulent market that wrought their misfortunes,” he accentuated. “Untangling those possibilities will take a marathon, not a sprint.”
The rub comes with enforcement. As Kersting notes, civil suits are the backbone of EU antitrust enforcement, so to speak, alongside regulatory action. But suppose Google loses and just refuses to pay? In such case, the companies have to chase Google through the courts in the United States, much like prodding a sleeping bear. Vet this scenario: If the White House is already sensitive to what it considers anti-American bias in European tech regulation, this could be considered yet another attack on Silicon Valley.
It has been troublesome for Google from a legal point of view far beyond Europe. Coming to the U.S. now, Yelp is hurling sharp accusations at the tech giant before a San Francisco courtroom, charging it with monopolistic behavior. The main allegation: that Google favors its own crowd-sourced reviews so much as to bury those of its competitors-this, in stark denial by Google-with high-stakes legal action imminent.
© 2025 Bloomberg LP
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Thanks for reading Google Facing at Least EUR 12 Billion in Civil Claims Across Europe
