Google faces setback as EU court adviser backs $1.7 billion AdSense fine

Google’s 2024 courtroom win in Europe is looking less permanent than the company probably hoped.

On November 12, 2026, Advocate General Juliane Kokott advised the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) that a lower court erred when it threw out a €1.49 billion ($1.7 billion) antitrust fine against the search giant. The opinion is non-binding. Still, it puts a penalty many considered dead back on the operating table.

What the adviser actually said

The case, formally Case C-826/24 P., centers on Google’s AdSense business and a fine the European Commission handed down in March 2019.

In September 2024, the EU General Court annulled that fine. It found the Commission’s assessment of Google’s conduct was inadequate.

The Commission, which acts as the bloc’s competition enforcer, did not accept that outcome. It appealed to the CJEU, the Luxembourg-based court that sits at the top of the EU’s judicial system.

Kokott’s view is that the General Court got it wrong. She recommended that the CJEU reject the annulment and send the case back for another look.

That is a meaningful distinction. Her recommendation does not automatically put the fine back in force. It reopens the question rather than answering it.

She also suggested that if a fine survives, it should be smaller. Her reasoning relates to findings about Google’s behavior in 2016, the year the company removed the contested contract clauses.

The original complaint: who gets to sell ads where

The Commission’s 2019 finding described restrictive terms in contracts Google wrote with publishers. Those terms allegedly blocked rival ad providers from placing search advertisements on the publishers’ websites. The Commission concluded this strengthened Google’s already dominant position in online search advertising.

Google dropped the clauses in 2016. That timing now matters for the size of any penalty, based on Kokott’s recommendation.

Why this case stands apart

The AdSense matter is one of six antitrust actions the EU has brought against Google. Across those six cases, the company has been fined a combined €10.38 billion over nearly two decades.

Until now, AdSense was the odd one out. It was the only case in that group where a fine had been annulled.

The timeline also deserves a mention. The fine was imposed in March 2019. A final decision from the CJEU is anticipated in 2027.

What this means for Google and EU regulators

The CJEU typically aligns with its advocate general’s conclusions, which means Kokott’s opinion is a reasonable preview of where the court may land.

For the Commission, the opinion offers a partial vindication. Its core argument, that the General Court misjudged the case, has found support at the highest level of review.

The catch is that Kokott’s suggested route back is not a simple reinstatement. A remand to the lower court means more litigation. A recommended reduction means the eventual number could land below €1.49 billion.

What to watch next is the CJEU’s ruling, expected in 2027. Three outcomes look plausible based on the opinion: the court rejects the annulment and remands as Kokott proposed, it charts its own course on the fine’s size, or it breaks from her view and leaves the 2024 annulment standing.