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Following a record European Union penalty over anti-competitive practices, rival companies across Europe are seeking billions in compensation, marking a new chapter in the battle over digital market dominance.
Google’s long-running regulatory battle with the European Union has entered a costly new phase, as rival companies launch a wave of civil lawsuits seeking approximately $10 billion in damages. The claims come only days after the European Commission imposed a landmark €890 million fine under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), concluding that Google had abused its dominant market position by favouring its own services and restricting competition.
The ruling, reported by Reuters, is widely viewed as a turning point in European competition policy. While previous antitrust investigations focused primarily on imposing financial penalties, the latest decision is expected to provide powerful legal support for private companies seeking compensation for alleged economic losses caused by Google’s conduct.
Several well-known European comparison-shopping platforms have already filed or announced legal action. Among them are British price comparison website Kelkoo, Swedish competitor PriceRunner, and Italian digital commerce company Moltiply Group, owner of Trovaprezzi.it. Moltiply alone is seeking €2.97 billion in damages, making it one of the largest individual claims filed so far.
According to legal experts and litigation finance firms such as LitFin, the European Commission’s findings provide compelling evidence that Google engaged in anti-competitive behavior over an extended period. Because the Commission has formally established violations of the DMA, claimants believe they now have a significantly stronger legal foundation to pursue compensation before national courts.
The Commission concluded that Google committed two separate breaches of the rules governing so-called gatekeepers—large digital platforms whose market power allows them to influence competition across the European digital economy.
The first violation concerns self-preferencing, a practice in which Google allegedly gave preferential treatment to its own services within Google Search results while placing rival comparison-shopping platforms at a competitive disadvantage. For this infringement, the Commission imposed a €460 million penalty.
The second violation relates to Google’s management of the Google Play Store. Regulators found that the company limited app developers’ ability to direct users toward alternative purchasing methods outside Google’s payment ecosystem, a practice commonly referred to as steering. This resulted in an additional €430 million fine.
Together, the two sanctions represent one of the first major enforcement actions under the Digital Markets Act, legislation specifically designed to curb the power of dominant technology companies and create a more competitive digital marketplace within the European Union.
The consequences, however, may extend far beyond the regulatory penalties themselves.
Unlike administrative fines, private lawsuits allow businesses to recover damages for revenue they claim was lost because of anti-competitive practices. With the Commission’s decision now on record, additional companies that believe they were harmed could decide to file similar claims, potentially increasing Google’s legal exposure even further.
Google has firmly rejected the allegations and dismissed the compensation claims as without merit. The company argues that competitors are attempting to profit from litigation rather than improving their own products and services through innovation.
According to Google’s position, the company continues to invest heavily in improving its search engine, digital marketplace, and artificial intelligence capabilities while complying with evolving European regulations. It maintains that users benefit from its integrated services and that its business practices remain focused on delivering the best possible experience.
Nevertheless, the legal challenges arrive at a particularly sensitive moment for Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Alongside mounting regulatory scrutiny across Europe and the United States, Alphabet is investing tens of billions of dollars in artificial intelligence infrastructure, cloud computing, and next-generation AI models. These substantial expenditures coincide with increasing legal costs and an expanding list of antitrust proceedings worldwide.
Over the past decade, European regulators have imposed more than €10 billion in fines against Google across multiple competition cases involving search, Android, digital advertising, and app distribution. The latest DMA enforcement demonstrates that European authorities are no longer relying solely on financial penalties but are also creating conditions that enable affected businesses to seek direct financial compensation.
For technology companies operating in Europe, the implications are significant. The Digital Markets Act appears poised not only to reshape how dominant digital platforms conduct business but also to transform private antitrust litigation into a major enforcement mechanism. If courts uphold the claims now being filed, the financial consequences for Google could far exceed the original regulatory fine.
The coming years may therefore determine whether the DMA becomes one of the most powerful competition laws ever enacted, fundamentally changing the relationship between Big Tech platforms and the businesses that depend on them.
Alessandro Fiorentino