Google has been fined a total of €890 million (£760 million) by the European Union for breaking competition laws with its search and app store services.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said Google violated the Digital Markets Act by giving priority to its own services—like shopping and hotel deals—in search results over those of competitors. It also broke the rules by stopping app developers from directing consumers to cheaper offers, including subscriptions, on websites or other app stores.
Google was fined €460 million for the search-related violation and €430 million for the app store one. The Commission has ordered the company to treat third-party services in its search results “fairly and without discrimination,” and to let app developers make offers outside Google’s app store.
The Commission noted that Google has already started testing changes to how it shows search results featuring its own services, calling these changes “substantial progress towards compliance.”
A senior EU official said consumers would directly benefit from the decision. “Search results will be different in Europe. Google will have to adapt its search engine going forward,” they said.
Max von Thun, director of the Open Markets Institute Europe think tank, said the fines were the “bare minimum” for a company that made over $400 billion in revenue last year.
“Now that the Commission has finally confirmed Google’s non-compliance, it must act quickly to force Google to end its anti-competitive practices for good. Europe’s startups and innovators can’t wait much longer,” he said.
The decision to impose the fine risks angering Donald Trump, just hours before a series of temporary global tariffs on about 60 countries are set to expire.
A senior EU official said they didn’t know how Trump might react, insisting the bloc has the “sovereign right” to regulate US tech companies within its own jurisdiction, and that the timing of the fine was unrelated to the tariffs.
Last year, Apple and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta were also fined under the DMA. Apple was ordered to pay €500 million for anti-competitive practices at its app store, and Meta was fined €200 million over its ad-free “consent or pay” model for Facebook and Instagram.
Google can appeal the decision and ask for interim measures, including a request to pause the penalty. Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, called the fine “product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants,” saying it would hurt European businesses and consumers.
He argued that the DMA forces Google “to remove real-time search features Europeans love—like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants—and dismantle safety protections on Google Play.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about the EU fining Google 890 million for breaking competition rules
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 What is this fine about in simple terms
The EU fined Google because it forced phone makers to install Google Search and the Chrome browser as a condition for using the Google Play Store This stopped other search engines and browsers from having a fair chance to compete
2 How much was the fine
The fine was 434 billion
3 Why did the EU care about this
The EU wants companies to compete fairly They said Google was using its power over the Android system to crush smaller rivals which is bad for innovation and consumer choice
4 Did Google have to pay the fine
Yes Google paid the fine in 2019 but it has appealed the decision The case is still going through the courts
5 Did this change anything for me as a phone user
Yes After the fine Google stopped forcing phone makers to preinstall its apps Now when you set up a new Android phone in Europe you are asked which search engine and browser you want to use
Advanced Questions
6 What specific rules did Google break
The EU said Google broke antitrust rules by
Requiring manufacturers to preinstall Google Search and Chrome to get a license for the Play Store
Paying manufacturers and mobile networks to exclusively preinstall Google Search
Preventing manufacturers from selling devices that ran forked versions of Android
7 Why is this fine different from the other EU fines against Google
This was the largest single fine the EU ever gave a company The other major fines were for Google Shopping and AdSense This one focused specifically on the Android operating system and mobile apps
8 Did Google try to fix the problem before the fine
Google offered to let phone makers preinstall other apps but the EU said the changes were not enough The EU wanted a complete end to the exclusivity deals and the forced bundling
9 How did this affect other companies like Apple
It didnt directly affect Apple because Apple controls its own iOS system and doesnt
