Brussels sanctions the American giant for having favored its own services and restricted competition, against a backdrop of trade tensions with Washington.
The European Union has fined Google a record €890 million for anti-competitive practices in online search and its Play Store app store. This sanction, announced Thursday, marks a turning point in the application of the Digital Markets Regulation (DMA), the European regulation aimed at repressing abuse of dominant position by tech giants.
Two major offenses punished
The total amount of the fine, which represents 0.22% of Google’s global revenue, estimated at 350 billion euros, is broken down into two parts. Google was fined 460 million euros for favoring its own services in the results of its Google Search search engine. These include hotel, flight or restaurant reservation tools, put forward to the detriment of the competition.
The second fine, amounting to 430 million euros, targets the Play Store. Brussels accuses Google of having prevented consumers from competing with its application store, by keeping them captive and limiting their access to rival applications or other points of sale.
The fine of 890 million euros is the highest imposed by the European Union under its Digital Markets Regulation (DMA), after Apple (500 million euros) and Meta (200 million), as of April 2025. Elon Musk’s social network X was fined 120 million euros last December under the Digital Services Regulation (DSA).
The European Commission specifies that the amount of the fines was determined according to “the seriousness and duration” of the infringements.
Dialogue and obligations for Google
Since the investigations were launched in March 2024, the European Commission has engaged in a “constructive dialogue” with Google, during more than 80 meetings. The American giant now has sixty days to comply with or appeal the decision, failing which it risks penalties which could reach 5% of its turnover.
Last week, Brussels forced Google to open its Android operating system to artificial intelligence services competing with its Gemini assistant and to share data collected by Google Search with its rivals. The new AI Overviews artificial intelligence search feature will be subject to the same competition restrictions.
This decision comes on the eve of the expiration of the provisional customs duties imposed on the EU by the American president, which must be replaced by a new tariff arsenal. Twenty-five Republican parliamentarians wrote to Donald Trump this week asking him to retaliate against the EU if it persists in exercising “discriminatory laws, policies or practices” against American companies.
On the Commission’s side, a spokesperson affirms that “the file was ready” and underlines: “The European Union has been very clear on its sovereign right to legislate; we are providing proof of this today. We remain open to discussion with the United States.”
Google, through Kent Walker, president of global affairs, denounces the decision: “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.” He adds that “regulations should improve products, not make them worse” and criticizes injunctions to remove “features that Europeans love”.
German MEP Bernd Lange (S&D, left) warns: this fine “must not serve as a pretext for retaliation by the United States”, affirming that “what is prohibited offline must also be prohibited online”.
In September 2025, Google had already received a fine of 2.95 billion euros for abuse of a dominant position in online advertising. An investigation has also been underway since December into the treatment of information sites in Google Search.
