Google has been hit with a record €890m (£759m) fine by the European Union for abusing its market power to promote its own apps and services over those of competitors. It is the first major enforcement action against the tech giant under the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark law designed to curb the dominance of the world's biggest tech companies.
The penalty is split into two separate breaches. The European Commission imposed a €460m fine after finding that Google favoured its own services for booking flights and hotels in search results, limiting consumer choice. A further €430m was levied for its Play Store rules, which regulators said prevented users from seeing cheaper offers available outside Google's own marketplace.
“Google fined €890m by EU for abusing power under new digital rules.”
Google criticised the decision, arguing that compliance would damage services used by millions of European customers. "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," said Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs. "This isn't fair competition."
EU officials rejected that argument. EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said companies should succeed because of the quality of their products rather than their market position. "The best products should succeed because they're better, not because they're owned by the company running the search engine," she said.
EU tech boss Henna Virkkunen echoed those thoughts, saying: "After this decision, we want to make sure that there is more competition and also other companies are able to innovate."
The case has been complicated by geopolitical tensions. Zach Meyers, director of research at the Centre on Regulation in Europe, noted a delay in finalising the decision, telling the BBC it was likely driven "by a desire not to upset EU-US relations". As US president Donald Trump has frequently threatened or imposed new tariffs, however, the Commission came to see its efforts as futile and went ahead with the fine. "It reflects a growing view among EU officials that the US president's unpredictability and unwillingness to comply with his own deals means that the EU has little to gain by treading softly," he said.
Google has a long history of disputes with European regulators, having previously received billions of euros in fines over separate competition cases. The latest penalty marks a significant escalation under the DMA, and could set a precedent for how the EU enforces its rules against other tech giants.