GC Rules on Google AdSense Terms

Oct 11, 2024 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

Google will not have to pay a fine after all. The Commission’s decision has been annulled by the General Court. The Commission had fined Google almost EUR 1.5 billion for including anti-competitive clauses in AdSense.

Google has operated an advertising platform called AdSense since 2003. Within that context, Google has created various services, in particular an online advertising intermediation service called AdSense for Search (AFS).

AFS allowed the publishers of search-engine enabled websites to display ads linked to online queries that users could submit on those websites. To use AFS, publishers generating sufficient turnover were able to negotiate with Google a ‘Google Services Agreement’. However, such agreements contained clauses that restricted or prohibited the display of ads from services competing with AFS.

The European Commission had found that Google was restricting competition by means of anti-competitive clauses in its AdSense advertising service.

In its judgment, the General Court has now confirmed the majority of the Commission’s findings, but annulled the decision. In the Court’s view, there had been errors in the Commission’s assessment of the contractual clauses and their impact on the market.

It found that there had been insufficient analysis of the extent to which publishers using Google AdSense were actually able to use alternative services during the contract period.

The Commission was also unable to prove conclusively that the clauses in question had actually restricted competition in the market for search engine advertising.

The Commission now has two months to appeal to the Court of Justice against the decision of the General Court.

See CJEU Press Release No. 123/24 (18 September 2014)