"This isn't fair competition," Google's president of global affairs Kent Walker said on Wednesday, as the EU slapped the tech giant with a record €890m (£759m) fine for abusing its market power.
The penalty, the first major enforcement under the bloc's Digital Markets Act, consists of two separate breaches: €460m for favouring its own hotel and flight booking services in search results, and €430m for Play Store rules that prevented developers from steering users to cheaper deals elsewhere.
“EU fines Google €890m for first DMA breach over search and app store favouritism.”
European Commission officials argued that Google's practices limited consumer choice and gave its own products an unfair advantage. "The best products should succeed because they're better, not because they're owned by the company running the search engine," said EU competition chief Teresa Ribera.
Google rejected the findings, warning that complying would strip away features Europeans rely on. "To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love – like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights and restaurants – and dismantle safety protections on Google Play," Walker said.
EU tech boss Henna Virkkunen defended the decision, saying: "After this decision, we want to make sure that there is more competition and also other companies are able to innovate."
The commission has ordered Google to treat third-party services in its search results in a "fair and non-discriminatory manner" and allow developers to make offers outside its app store. A senior EU official said consumers would benefit directly: "Research results will be different in Europe. They will have to adapt their search engine going forward."
Zach Meyers, director of research at the Centre on Regulation in Europe, noted that the fine came after a delay the EU attributed to concerns about upsetting US relations under President Donald Trump, who has threatened tariffs. The commission decided postponing was futile.
Max von Thun, director of the Open Markets Institute Europe, called the fine the "bare minimum" for a company that made over $400bn in revenue last year. "Having finally established Google's non-compliance, the commission must now move quickly to force Google to end its anti-competitive practices once and for all," he said.
Google has a history of EU fines, including a €4.1bn penalty over Android. The DMA has already hit Apple (€500m) and Meta (€200m). The question now is whether Washington will retaliate.