Europe fines Google $1 billion but signals its biggest battle may be over
The EU punished Alphabet under its landmark digital law while acknowledging changes the company has made to comply.
Google was fined a total of €890 million ($1 billion) on Thursday for violating European Union rules aimed at limiting the power of Big Tech companies, the European Commission said.
However, the Alphabet-owned company is unlikely to face additional financial penalties in the near future, as EU regulators said Google has made significant progress toward complying with the bloc's landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The fines highlight Europe's continued effort to rein in dominant technology platforms and prevent them from using their market power to disadvantage competitors, despite growing criticism from the United States and threats of retaliation over EU technology regulation.
The European Commission imposed two separate fines on Google.
The first, totaling €460 million, relates to allegations that Google favored its own services, including shopping, hotels, transportation and sports results, in its search results, disadvantaging competing providers.
The second fine, worth €430 million, concerns Google's Google Play app store policies, which the Commission said restricted app developers from directing users to cheaper offers available through rival app stores or their own websites.
The penalties are Google's first fines under the DMA, but mark the company's fifth and sixth major EU antitrust penalties overall. Over nearly two decades, Google has accumulated total EU competition fines of €10.38 billion.
"Our duty and obligation is to comply with the laws, that our laws are fully respected," EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera told reporters when asked about criticism from Washington.
"The DMA is to make sure we have a fair and level playing field. With these decisions we want to make sure there is competition," EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen said.
Google now has 60 days to comply with the Commission's orders, which require the company to treat competing services more fairly in search results and allow app developers greater freedom to direct users outside Google Play.
The company criticized the decision and said it may challenge the findings in court.
"To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love, like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights and restaurants, and dismantle safety protections on Google Play," Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker said.
"This isn't fair competition; it's product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants, with European businesses and consumers taking the hit. Regulation should improve products, not make them worse," he added. Despite imposing the fines, the European Commission indicated that Google is making sufficient progress toward compliance, reducing the likelihood of additional daily penalties.
The Commission said Google has proposed and begun testing changes to how it displays its own services in search results, including shopping, hotels and flights.
It also noted that Google has started testing changes to how shopping advertisements and other content-related services, such as sports results, are presented.
The Commission said it would continue evaluating Google's changes through ongoing discussions with the company.
The regulator also said Google could apply the same compliance principles to its AI-generated search features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, as regulators increasingly focus on how artificial intelligence could reshape competition in digital markets.
Google's proposed changes to Google Play's steering policies also received a preliminary positive assessment from the Commission.
The EU's broader crackdown on Big Tech has become a source of tension with the Trump administration, which has accused Europe of unfairly targeting U.S. technology companies and has threatened retaliatory tariffs.
The Google fines are the third set of penalties issued under the DMA, following actions against Apple and Meta Platforms last year.
