The EU imposed a total of 890 million euros in fines on Google on Thursday July 23 for violations of competition in online search and within the Google Play application store, at the risk of a new crisis with Washington.
This overall amount represents the highest sanction imposed by Brussels against a company under the European Digital Markets Regulation (DMA), a powerful European law aimed at cracking down on abuses of dominant position by tech giants.
In detail, Google was fined 460 million euros for favoring its own services in the results of its Google Search search engine. Added to this is a second fine of 430 million euros, for preventing developers using its application store, the Play Store, from directing customers to other virtual points of sale.
“This is a very important decision,” said Commission Vice-President for Digital Affairs Henna Virkkunen, stressing that it aimed to “ensure a level playing field” for all online businesses.
The American technology giant, for its part, criticized this decision, which it believes will lead to a deterioration of services that are popular with Internet users.
“To comply, we are forced to remove real-time search features that Europeans love, like instant pricing and direct availability of hotels, flights and restaurants, and dismantle security protections on Google Play,” said Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs.
This new sanction risks fueling Washington’s anger against European digital regulations, which the Trump administration accuses of unfairly targeting American champions of the sector.
“Product degradation”
At the end of an investigation opened in 2024, Brussels concluded that Google had granted preferential treatment to its own flight or hotel price comparison services, in its search engine, to the detriment of its competitors.
In addition, the European Commission accuses Google of having practiced “antisteering” within Google Play. A practice prohibited by the DMA, consisting of preventing developers from promoting other application stores.
The group, which has already proposed or introduced measures to try to comply with the DMA, will have to comply with this decision within 60 days, under penalty of additional fines.
Google disputes these findings. The group ensures that its enriched search results meet a demand from Internet users, and criticizes the way in which the DMA is applied by Brussels.
“This is not fair competition, it is a degradation of products, dictated by a small group of complainants motivated by their own interests, to the detriment of European businesses and consumers,” said Kent Walker, adding that “regulation should improve products, not make them worse”.
Previously, Brussels had already sanctioned Apple and Meta under the DMA, but for lower amounts (500 and 200 million euros respectively).
