EU hits Google €890M Fine For Self-Preferencing in Search and Play Store
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The European Commission is penalising Google for breaching the Digital Markets Act for the first time. The case covers self-preferencing in search results and the rules governing the Google Play app store. Criticism of the size of the fine has come, among others, from search engine Ecosia.
The European Commission on Thursday imposed a fine totalling 890 million euros on Google. It is the first penalty against the US company under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) – and the largest sanction Brussels has issued so far under the regulatory framework, which entered into force in 2022. The previous record was a fine against Apple over App Store steering rules.
The amount is split across two separate proceedings, both concerning abuse of market power: 460 million euros relate to Google Search, 430 million euros to the Google Play app marketplace.
Charge 1: Self-preferencing in search
In the first case, the Commission accuses Google of placing its own vertical search services – such as Google Shopping, Google Flights and its hotel search – more prominently in results than comparable third-party offerings. The authority specifically points to visually highlighted formats such as coloured boxes displaying Google’s own content, including sports results or hotel offers. Article 6(5) of the DMA prohibits so-called gatekeepers from exactly this form of self-preferencing. The proceeding has been running since March 2024; the Commission issued its preliminary findings in March 2025.
Charge 2: Anti-steering on Google Play
The second case concerns the rules for app developers. According to the Commission, Google prevented them from pointing users to cheaper offers outside the Play Store – for example on their own websites or in alternative app stores. This proceeding was also opened in March 2024, in parallel with investigations into Apple and Meta.
60-day deadline, then periodic penalty payments
Alongside the payment, the Commission is demanding product changes: third-party services must in future be treated fairly and without discrimination in search results, and app developers must be allowed to point to offers outside Google Play. Google has 60 days to comply. If the company fails to do so, Brussels can impose periodic penalty payments of up to five percent of average daily worldwide turnover. The Commission also noted that Google has already proposed changes to how it displays its own services and is currently testing them.
The DMA provides for fines of up to ten percent of global annual turnover, rising to 20 percent for repeat infringements. Alphabet posted record revenue of around 402.8 billion dollars in 2025 – meaning the theoretical maximum penalty would have been roughly 40 billion dollars.
Criticism: fine too low
Criticism of the size of the penalty has come from the European Parliament and from competitors. Green MEP Alexandra Geese called the sum disappointing and out of all proportion to the damage done to the European economy, calling for consistent daily penalty payments.
Berlin-based search engine Ecosia makes a similar argument. CEO Christian Kroll says:
“Since 2017 the Commission has imposed fines of more than eleven billion euros – fines the company has consistently appealed and in some cases only paid years later. And Google’s market share in internet search in Europe? It has climbed further to around 90 percent in the meantime. Fines of 890 million euros for a company with 400 billion dollars in annual revenue are not a deterrent. They are a calculated part of a business model.”
Context: antitrust law vs. the DMA
Google has been the target of competition proceedings in Europe for years: a 2.42 billion euro fine in the Shopping case in 2017, roughly 4.34 billion euros over Android in 2018 – upheld by the European Court of Justice in early July 2026 at a slightly reduced level – and 2.95 billion euros over its adtech practices in September 2025. Those cases rest on classic antitrust law, typically involving years of investigation. The DMA, by contrast, defines up front what gatekeepers may and may not do, and is designed to force behavioural change more quickly.
Politically, the decision is delicate: US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticised Europe’s digital legislation as a trade barrier and threatened countermeasures. After the adtech fine in September 2025, he publicly called the decision unfair.
Further DMA proceedings against Google are running in parallel: by the end of July, the Commission must set out binding rules on how the company is to share search data with competing search engines and open Android to third-party AI assistants. Another case, opened in November 2025, concerns the alleged demotion of news publishers in search results.
