Europe’s top court has ruled that Google must pay a €4.1bn (£3.5bn) fine for using its Android mobile operating system to illegally block rivals — the largest penalty the European Commission has ever imposed on the tech giant.
The fine, originally set at €4.3bn (then £3.9bn) in 2018, was trimmed to €4.1bn in 2022. Google’s appeal against the reduced penalty has now been dismissed by the Court of Justice of the European Union, ending a legal battle that has lasted nearly a decade.
“Europe's top court upholds €4.1bn fine against Google for using Android to block rivals, dismissing final appeal.”
At the heart of the case were three anticompetitive practices alleged by the Commission: Google required handset and tablet makers to pre-install its Search and Chrome apps as a condition for offering access to the Play app store; it made payments to large manufacturers and mobile network operators to exclusively pre-install Google Search; and it prevented manufacturers from selling devices powered by alternative “forked” versions of Android by threatening to withhold app-store licences.
A Google spokesperson said the judgement “fails to recognise” the company’s “significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free”. They added: “In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers.”
When the original fine was announced, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai wrote that the decision “rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less.”
This is not the first time Google has fallen foul of EU antitrust regulators. In September 2024, the Commission fined Google €2.4bn (£2bn) for abusing the dominance of its shopping-comparison service. A year later, in September 2025, it imposed a €2.95bn (£2.5bn) penalty for favouring its own products in online display advertising.
Despite the record €4.1bn fine, it is not the largest ever imposed on Google. In October 2024, a Russian court ordered the company to pay a fine of two undecillion roubles — an amount exceeding the world’s total GDP — for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.
The ruling today marks the end of a long-running regulatory saga, but with Google already altering its agreements in 2018, the practical impact on Android’s current operations may be limited — though the judgement solidifies the EU’s stance against big tech’s market dominance.