Google Fined for Changing Shopping Algorithms in EU to Favor Own Service

Laws that address this harm

Policy angle: Classified under Socioeconomic & Environmental Harms (Power centralization and unfair distribution of benefits) in the MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy; 5 recorded instruments address this use case.

• Colorado AI Act Colorado (United States) · Repealed · binding
• Framework Convention on AI (CETS 225) Council of Europe · Adopted · binding
• India DPDP Act India · Partially applicable · binding
• Law on Artificial Intelligence (2025) Kazakhstan · Adopted · binding
• Law No. 132/2025 on artificial intelligence Italy · In force · binding

Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (1)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

1. 10 Nov 2021
   Vestager’s court win opens way for more Google cases

   politico.eu · Simon Van Dorpe

Who was involved

Alleged deployer

Google

Alleged developer

Google

Alleged harmed party

Google'S Competitor Shopping Services

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk domain

Socioeconomic & Environmental Harms

Risk subdomain

6.1 Power centralization and unfair distribution of benefits

Causal entity

AI

Intent

Intentional

Timing

Post-deployment

Harm level

—

Sectors

—

Countries

—

Risk entries describing this failure mode

Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 6.1.

• Monopolisation

  "Monopolisation - Abuse of market power through the control of prices, thereby limiting competition and creating unfair barriers to entry."

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Power concentration

  "Power concentration - Amplification of concentration of economic and/or political wealth and power, potentially resulting in increased inequality and instability."

  A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

• Potential exploitation by totalitarian regimes

  The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

• Corporate power may impeded effective governance

  "The increasing power and influence of large corporations may make effective governance difficult. There exists a power asymmetry between corporate entities profiting from LLMs and other social groups (e.g. civil society...

  Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

• Market concentration risks and single points of failure

  "Market power is concentrated among a few companies that are the only ones able to build the leading general- purpose AI models. Widespread adoption of a few general- purpose AI models and systems by critical sectors inc...

  International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (Bengio2024)

• Global AI Divide

  "General- purpose AI research and development is currently concentrated in a few Western countries and China. This ‘AI Divide’ is multicausal, but in part related to limited access to computing power in low- income count...

  International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (Bengio2024)

• Global AI R&D divide

  "Large companies in countries with strong digital infrastructure lead in general- purpose AI R&D, which could lead to an increase in global inequality and dependencies. For example, in 2023, the majority of notable gener...

  International AI Safety Report 2025 (Bengio2025)

• Market concentration and single points of failure

  "Market shares for general- purpose AI tend to be highly concentrated among a few players, which can create vulnerability to systemic failures. The high degree of market concentration can invest a small number of large t...

  International AI Safety Report 2025 (Bengio2025)

Incidents in the same risk subdomain

• 17 Mar 2025LLM Scrapers Allegedly Target Multiple Open Source Projects Disrupting the FOSS Ecosystem
• 4 Jul 2021Coupang Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithms to Boost Own Products
• 1 Aug 2018Amazon Allegedly Tweaked Search Algorithm to Boost Its Own Products
• 15 Jan 2018Gmail’s Inbox Sorting System Reportedly Reduced Visibility of Political Emails and Campaign Calls-to-Action
• 31 Dec 2016Amazon India Allegedly Rigged Search Results to Promote Own Products

Other incidents involving Google

• 1 May 2026Google Gemini Reportedly Accessed Three Real Companies' Protected Systems During Cybersecurity Evaluation
• 23 Jan 2026NPR Host David Greene Alleged Google's NotebookLM Replicated His Voice Without Consent, Prompting Lawsuit
• 19 Dec 2025Google AI-Generated Search Summary Reportedly Falsely Implicated Canadian Musician in Sexual Offenses, Leading to Concert Cancellation
• 22 Oct 2025Google's Bard, Gemini, and Gemma AI Systems Allegedly Generated Defamatory Claims About Activist Robby Starbuck, Prompting Lawsuit
• 15 Oct 2025Purportedly AI-Generated Hunting Regulation Errors Reportedly Lead to Idaho Citation and Multi-State Warnings from Wildlife Agencies
• 29 Sep 2025Google Gemini Reportedly Reinforced Delusions, Allegedly Contributing to Florida User's Near-Harm Episode and Suicide