Poland targets Google over publisher talks, risking a 10% fine

Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection opened antitrust proceedings against Alphabet and three of its subsidiaries on October 5, 2026. The regulator suspects Google abused its dominant market position during negotiations with press publishers over content remuneration.

The formal charges target four entities across the Alphabet group. If the competition watchdog finds the company guilty of antitrust violations, it can impose a statutory fine of up to 10% of annual company turnover.

The dispute centers on how Google implements the 2024 amendment to the Polish Copyright Act, which adopted the European Union digital single market directive into national law. In December 2025, the European Commission also opened an inquiry into Google's use of publisher material for artificial intelligence models.

Alphabet has faced other legal challenges in Poland before. In December 2024, Polish price comparison platform Ceneo filed a lawsuit against the tech giant seeking 2.33 billion PLN in damages, equivalent to 568 million dollars.