The European Commission is on a roll, on fire, bursting with energy in this sweltering summer. Want a few examples?
Now, the Brussels-based body has just imposed another multimillion-euro fine. And once again, the company affected is Google.
The European Commission has fined Google for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by prioritizing its own services in Google Search and for imposing restrictions on businesses seeking to direct consumers to alternative purchasing channels, often cheaper ones, on Google Play. Specifically, the EU body has split the penalty into two fines of €460 million and €430 million, respectively.
“When calculating the fines, the Commission assessed the gravity, duration, and recurrence of the infringements and concluded that the amount of the fines imposed is proportionate and appropriate”, it explained.
First, the European Commission fined Google for favoring its own services within its search engine. According to Brussels, “Google grants preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport, and sports results, over those of third parties in Google Search”. In other words, Google places its own options in more visible positions and with more prominent formats than equivalent services from other companies, “including at the top of the results page or through the use of enhanced visual features and filters.”
This breaches the Digital Markets Act, which requires major gatekeepers to apply transparent, fair, and non-discriminatory criteria. For this practice, Google received a €460 million fine.
The second penalty, €430 million, is related to Google Play. The Commission believes that Google prevented or made it more difficult for developers to inform their users about alternative offers, usually cheaper ones, available outside the Play Store, whether on websites or alternative app stores. It also questions the commissions Google charged for redirecting traffic and the length of time during which those charges were applied. In total, the company will have to pay €890 million and modify both practices in order to treat its competitors more fairly and allow developers to sell outside Google Play with greater freedom.
“Google prevents app developers from communicating freely with users, promoting offers, and concluding contracts through the distribution channels of their choice, including third-party app stores. While Google may receive a commission for facilitating an app developer’s initial acquisition of a new customer through Google Play, the level of the traffic management commissions charged by Google and the duration of the period during which those commissions were charged exceeded what is considered compliant with the DMA“, it explained.
In any case, the Commission emphasized that the company has been cooperative: “Google has proposed and begun testing changes to the way it displays its own services in Google Search for free services such as shopping, hotels, and flights. The Commission will monitor the implementation of these solutions, which constitute substantial progress toward compliance.”
While the European Commission continues refining its procedures for overseeing the activity of digital sector giants in the EU, Google is required to comply with the decision within 60 days. Otherwise, it could face periodic fines of up to 5% of its total worldwide turnover (in addition to the fines we learned about today, of course).
Which, as you can imagine, would be a lot of money. A whole lot of money. In the neighborhood of $20 billion, if we look at the $402 billion it brought in during 2025, without going any further.
Image: ChatGPT
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