The European Union has fined Google’s parent company Alphabet €890 million (about $1 billion) for two separate violations of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). One penalty is for giving its own products preferential treatment in search results, while the other is for blocking Android developers from sending users to alternate payment options.
A €460 million fine has been issued to Google for giving preferential treatment to its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights services in Google Search results. The second €430 million penalty is for Play Store rules preventing developers from freely steering consumers to alternative payment systems that may be cheaper.
As part of the ruling, Google has been given 60 days to make changes to its policies, or face further periodic penalty payments. In Search, it will be required to treat third-party services “in a fair and non-discriminatory manner,” while it will also have to allow Android developers to freely promote offers to users both inside and outside the Play Store.
Google made and tested several changes to its Search services in an effort to comply with DMA rules, such as removing the Google Flights widget for Search users in the EU, and boosting links to third-party comparison websites via an updated search result layout. The company has previously fired back at the EU’s criticisms of its Search product, telling Reuters in May that changes it made in an attempt to achieve DMA compliance “represent the biggest downgrade in the product’s history, creating a second-rate experience for Europeans to the benefit of a few self-interested complainants.” These changes were made prior to Google introducing a reimagined AI-focused search box at its I/O conference in May, however, which has also rolled out to EU users.
Google was previously hit with a €2.42 billion fine in 2017 for a similar breach of the EU’s antitrust rules, after it was charged with giving its comparison shopping service an illegal advantage over competitors.
As for the Play Store, Google has repeatedly objected to rules requiring it to open up app distribution on Android systems, claiming doing so poses a security risk to users. The company repeated these objections following the Commission’s preliminary finding and in a blog posted last year, said “the DMA is making it difficult to protect users from scams and malicious links on Android by forcing us to remove our legitimate safeguards that protect users’ security and safety.” Nevertheless, it updated certain terms following consultations with the European Commission and other experts, revising fees and restrictions on Android developers. The Commission says these changes “constitute good progress towards compliance.”
The DMA targets the largest “gatekeeper” companies that provide core digital services in Europe, and requires them to act in a fair manner – not stifle competition by abusing their market dominance. The maximum fine for breaching DMA rules is 10 percent of the company’s global annual revenue — $40 billion in Google’s case, based on the $400 billion it reported for 2025.
“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” says Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice-president for clean, just and competitive transition. “And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut. This is the promise of the DMA, protecting fairness, choice and innovation in digital markets for the benefit of all European citizens.”
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