Advocate General urges Court of Justice to reverse annulment of Google's €1.49B AdSense fine

What the adviser recommended

Advocate General Juliane Kokott, an adviser to the EU Court of Justice, recommended on Thursday, 12 November 2026, that the court annul a General Court judgment which had overturned the European Commission's fine on Google. The fine amounts to €1.494 billion and concerns Google's AdSense for Search service. Kokott argued that the General Court wrongly held that the Commission had not shown exclusionary effects from Google's contract practices tied to AdSense. She also proposed sending the case back to the General Court for a fresh review. Advocate General opinions do not bind the judges, who will still deliberate on the appeal lodged by the Commission.

How the fine came about

Brussels fined Google in March 2019 after complaints that its service agreement with website operators contained clauses restricting or banning ads from rival services. Of the total, €130 million was jointly liable with parent company Alphabet. Google and Alphabet challenged the decision before the General Court, which annulled it in September 2024. The Commission found the contested practices ran from 2006 to 2016, and Google changed the clauses in September 2016. The General Court accepted much of the Commission's reasoning but concluded that the Commission had not sufficiently assessed how long the publisher contracts lasted. Kokott's view is that this demanded excessive proof on duration, and that the Commission's overall assessment of the contracts was adequate.

Google's response

A Google spokesperson, replying in writing to the Portuguese news agency Lusa, defended the General Court's decision and rejected the Commission's case.

“The General Court correctly annulled the original decision, concluding that the European Commission did not demonstrate that our contracts restricted competition.”

The company also said it would keep backing the judgment and was keen to bring the matter to a close after a long dispute.

“We will continue to support the General Court's judgment and are committed to closing this process, which has dragged on for a long time.”

Kokott's record and what comes next

Kokott has written advisory opinions in two earlier Google cases, Shopping and Android, and the court sided with her in both. The €2.4 billion Shopping fine was confirmed in 2024, and the €4.1 billion Android fine was upheld in July. Google is separately contesting a near-€3 billion adtech fine. Taken together, six EU antitrust penalties on Google amount to €10.38 billion, accumulated over nearly two decades. The AdSense fine is the only one a court has annulled. The Court of Justice judges will decide the appeal, and a ruling is expected in 2027.

AdSense fine (2019)1.494

Shopping fine2.4

Android fine4.1

AdSense fine (2019)

1.494 EUR billion

Shopping fine

2.4 EUR billion

Android fine

4.1 EUR billion

Data from the article text