European Commission fines Google €890 million for violating Digital Markets Act
European Commission fines Google €890 million for violating Digital Markets Act. When a tech giant is both the platform and a seller on it, the balance between competition and dominance becomes fragile. The European Union, consistently advocating for a fair digital environment, has landed another blow against the practice of market gatekeepers opening doors wider for themselves than for others. A fine of nearly a billion euros is not just a financial penalty — it is a signal that even the biggest players must play by the rules that ensure equal opportunities for all.
On Thursday, the European Commission fined Google €890 million (about $1.02 billion) for violating the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). The EU executive imposed a €430 million fine for restrictions on app developers and a separate €460 million fine for giving preferential treatment to its own services in search results. The total fine is the largest imposed on a single company under the DMA. The Commission found that Google gave preference to its own shopping, hotel, transport and sports services by displaying them more prominently in search results than competing third party services. Under the DMA, large tech companies designated as "gatekeepers" are prohibited from ranking their own services more favourably than similar services offered by third parties.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, was designated as a gatekeeper for services such as Google Search and Google Play in September 2023. The Commission also found that Google prevented developers distributing apps through Google Play from informing users about alternative, often cheaper, offers available on their own websites or through third party app stores. The Commission ordered Google to cease both practices within 60 days, ensuring fair treatment of competing services in search results and allowing app developers to promote alternative offers and conduct transactions outside its app store. Non compliance could result in additional daily penalties for Google — up to 5 per cent of the company's average daily worldwide turnover for the previous financial year for each day of non compliance.
Google became the third company fined under the DMA. In 2025, the Commission fined Apple €500 million and Meta €200 million. In a separate antitrust case, the Commission fined Google €4.343 billion in 2018 for imposing anti competitive restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile operators. In 2022, the EU General Court partially annulled the decision but upheld the main findings and reduced the fine to €4.125 billion. On 2 July, the EU Court of Justice dismissed Google's appeal, upholding the reduced fine.
As CCTV+ reports. The new fine marks another chapter in the long running standoff between the EU and tech giants, demonstrating Brussels' determination to strictly regulate digital markets and protect the interests of consumers and small businesses.
