CASE HUB ARCHIVED–this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 10/10/2025; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline. Case facts Outline CMA DMCCA 2024 investigation into whether Google should be designated as having SMS in respect of its provision of general search and search advertising services. Latest development On 10 October 2025, the CMA published its final decision designating Google with SMS in the supply of general search services in the UK. Parties • Google Background On 14 January 2025, the CMA published its investigation notice which set out the CMA’s grounds for launching the investigation. On the same day, the CMA published an invitation to comment

CASE HUB ARCHIVED–this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 22/10/2025; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline. Case facts Outline CMA DMCCA 2024 investigation into whether Google should be designated as having SMS in the provision of its mobile platform. Latest development On 22 October 2025, the CMA published its final decision designating Google as having SMS in respect of its mobile platform. Parties • Google Background On 23 January 2025, the CMA published its investigation notice which set out the CMA’s grounds for launching the investigation. On the same day, the CMA published an invitation to comment (ITC) setting out the scope of its investigation, the main avenues of investigation

CASE HUB See further, timeline. Case facts Outline CMA DMCCA 2024 conduct requirement investigation into Google's general search services following Google's designation as having SMS in general search services. Latest development On 23 September 2026, the CMA launched a further consultation on strengthened proposals for a user choice conduct requirement, following its consideration of responses to the January 2026 consultation and developments in how consumers use search services, including AI assistants. Parties • Google Background SMS investigation On 14 January 2025, the CMA launched its investigation into whether Google should be designated as having SMS in respect of its provision of general search and search advertising services in the UK.On the same day, the CMA published an invitation to comment setting out the scope of its investigation, the main avenues of investigation and the potential issues and interventions it was considering.Between January and February 2025, the CMA held a series of roundtable events with stakeholders as part of its SMS investigation.On 10 October 2025, the CMA published its final decision designating Google as having

CASE HUB NOTE—appeal lodged before the General Court in Case T- 334/19 ARCHIVED–this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 20/03/2019; it is no longer maintained. See further: timeline, commentary and related cases. Case facts Outline European Commission Article 102 TFEU investigation into Google (AdSense) in relation to online search advertising intermediation (case number AT.40411) Latest developments On 20 March 2019, the Commission adopted an infringement decision finding Google abused its dominant position on the market for online search advertising intermediation through its “AdSense for Search” product. The Commission imposed a fine of €1.49bn on Google. Parties Google and its parent company, Alphabet. Google operates an online search service and, in addition, several other services including its online search engine intermediation service “AdSense for Search”. Websites such as newspaper websites, blogs or travel sites aggregators frequently offer an embedded search function. When a user searches via this search function, the website delivers both search results and search adverts, which appear alongside the search result. Through AdSense for Search, Google provides these search

IP & IT analysis: Will the latest judgment change commercial practices when constructing AdWord campaigns? Rebecca Halford-Harrison, IP & Litigation partner at Kemp Little, discusses the difficulty of setting parameters of ‘honest’ practice and the challenges of enforcing trade mark rights against a third party.

MLex: Websites using Google Analytics or other similar tools may no longer need to obtain users' consent to do so after the UK’s new data protection law comes into force, a senior figure at the country’s data protection authority has said. Cookie rules may eliminate the need for consent, the Information Commissioner’s Office's (ICO) Emily Keaney said, but it depends on the exact wording of the legislation and use of data.

CASE HUB ARCHIVED—this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 17 December 2020; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline. Case facts Outline European Commission merger investigation into the proposed acquisition by Google LLC of Fitbit Inc. (M.9660). The proposed transaction involves horizontal overlaps in the markets for the supply of online search and display advertising services and ‘ad tech’ services. Latest developments On 17 December 2020, the Commission cleared the transaction subject to commitments. To address the Commission’s concerns, the commitments package is made up of a collection of behavioural and access remedies that determine how Google can use the data collected for advertising purposes, how interoperability between competing wearables and Android will be safeguarded and how users can continue to share health and fitness data, if they choose to. The commitments will be in place to ten years (and the Commission may extend the commitments in relation to advertising for a further ten years if justified). Parties • Google LLC (Google): Google is an American multinational

CASE HUB (Note—appeal lodged by Google at the General Court in Case T- 612/17) ARCHIVED–this archived case hub reflects the position at the date of the decision of 27 June 2017; it is no longer maintained. See further, timeline, commentary and related cases. Case facts Outline European Commission Article 102 TFEU investigation into Google in relation to search for online shopping (case number AT.39740). Latest developments On 27 June 2017, the Commission adopted an infringement decision finding that Google abused its dominant position in markets for online search by giving an illegal advantage to its online shopping comparison service (currently called ‘Google Shopping’). The Commission found that Google’s actions impeded the ability of other shopping comparison services, some of which were established when Google entered the market, to compete effectively and to innovate. The Commission imposed a fine of €2,424,495,000 on Google (the second largest antitrust fine imposed on an undertaking by the Commission) and ordered Google to stop the conduct in question within 90 days. The Commission has ordered Google to stop the conduct identified as being

Google's advertising service for search engine optimisation around certain keywords and terms.

Law360, London: A group of independent UK publishers have set the ball rolling on copyright infringement claims against artificial intelligence developers, including Google and Meta, alleging that they might have trained models using protected works without permission.

Google has announced it will maintain its current approach to third-party cookie controls in Chrome and will not implement a new standalone prompt, marking a shift from its previous Privacy Sandbox plans. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is now reviewing the implications of this announcement for Google's existing commitments made under the 2022 Privacy Sandbox agreement. The decision comes as Google cites evolving privacy technology adoption, emerging AI opportunities, and regulatory changes since the Privacy Sandbox initiative launched in 2019. Google stated it will continue developing privacy-enhancing technologies and plans to launch IP Protection in Q3 2025.

Law360, London: Google has dodged a class action from patients who alleged the tech giant misused their health records for a kidney injury alert app, after a London appeals court on 11 December 2024 refused to revive the mass data privacy claim.