Google has been ordered to pay €573 million by a German court in a major enforcement of European antitrust law.
The decision stems from the European Commission’s earlier finding that the company unfairly favoured its own shopping comparison service in search results.
With this ruling, Germany has become the first country to award damages based directly on that EU case, signalling a shift in how member states are applying supranational antitrust decisions at a domestic level.
Two German firms win claims tied to 2017 EU ruling
The Berlin Regional Court announced two separate rulings against Google late Thursday, later releasing them on Friday morning. Idealo, a price-comparison company owned by Axel Springer SE, had sought €3.3 billion in damages.
The court awarded €374 million in compensation, with an additional €91 million in interest. In a parallel case, Producto GmbH had claimed €290 million. It was awarded €89.7 million plus €17.7 million in interest.
These civil suits directly follow a 2017 decision by the European Commission. At that time, the EU regulator fined Google €2.4 billion for breaching competition laws.
It found that the company gave systematic preference to its own shopping service in its search engine, to the detriment of competing price-comparison tools.
Court action resumes after Google’s failed EU appeal
Google’s response to the Commission’s 2017 ruling involved a long appeals process. As a result, many private lawsuits across Europe were delayed while claimants waited for a definitive legal outcome.
That arrived in 2021, when the General Court of the European Union upheld the fine and confirmed that Google had breached competition law.
With that confirmation in place, claimants no longer needed to prove the original violation in national courts.
The German court based its judgments on this confirmed breach, focusing instead on measuring the damage suffered by the plaintiffs.
This legal mechanism, often referred to as a follow-on claim, has now led to one of the largest antitrust-related damages awards in the country’s recent history.
Google faces wider legal fallout across European markets
The implications of the German verdict are not limited to Berlin. The case demonstrates how EU-level regulatory decisions can form the basis for financial claims in national courts.
Legal analysts expect similar actions to emerge in other jurisdictions including France and the Netherlands. These cases no longer require new investigations into Google’s behaviour, only assessments of financial harm.
Across Europe, Google is facing an estimated €12 billion in civil claims tied to this single antitrust issue. The scale of this figure highlights the potential exposure tech firms face once an EU decision is finalised.
Germany’s enforcement may now act as a roadmap for other member states considering similar actions under EU antitrust frameworks.
The company has previously argued that its shopping service benefits consumers by helping them find products quickly and efficiently.
However, courts across the EU have found that this came at the expense of rival comparison platforms, which were demoted in search visibility despite offering comparable or lower prices.
Legal precedent creates new pressure for Big Tech
Germany’s €573 million judgment serves as a critical reminder of the tangible consequences of digital market regulation.
The EU’s competition authority laid the groundwork, but it is now up to national courts to convert those findings into financial accountability.
The Berlin decision marks a significant step in that process and could influence how future claims against Big Tech are approached across the bloc.
For Google, the ruling closes one chapter but opens another. With claims still pending across multiple countries and scrutiny expanding under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, regulatory pressure on dominant platforms continues to mount.
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