New Delhi, July 28 -- private damages claims that legal specialists say could dwarf the roughly one billion dollars in penalties the commission imposed last week.

Companies including review aggregators, travel-booking platforms, and comparison sites that have spent years arguing they were disadvantaged by Google's preferential treatment of its own products are now assessing whether the commission's finding of a DMA violation can anchor damages cases in national courts across the European Union. The question is not theoretical; it is a matter of timing, legal strategy, and the size of the claim each company believes it can substantiate.

"The DMA fine is the opening of a chapter, not the conclusion of one," said a competition lawyer at a ...