The European Commission fined Google €890 million for competition breaches of the Digital Markets Act, alleging that its search results favored its own services and that its app store barred developers from directing consumers to cheaper alternatives.

The Digital Markets Act, enacted in 2023, requires dominant online platforms to ensure fair competition and to allow third‑party services to be promoted equally in search results. The European Commission has already imposed similar penalties on Apple, which was ordered to pay €500 million for app‑store practices, and on Meta, which faced a €200 million fine related to its ad‑free subscription proposal.

The Commission said Google had violated the act by ranking its own shopping and hotel offers higher than those of rival providers and by preventing app developers from steering users to lower‑priced options on external websites or alternative app stores. It ordered Google to treat third‑party services appearing in its search results in a fair and non‑discriminatory manner and to permit developers to present offers outside the Google Play store. The regulator noted that Google has begun testing adjustments to its search result layout, which it described as substantial progress toward compliance.

A senior EU official said consumers would benefit from the changes, adding that search results in Europe would differ as a result of the ruling. Max von Thun, director of the Open Markets Institute Europe, said the fine was the minimum required for a company that reported more than $400 billion in annual revenue and urged the Commission to act quickly to end the anti‑competitive practices. He emphasized that Europe’s startups and innovators cannot wait much longer.

The timing of the fine attracted attention because former U.S. President Donald Trump was set to leave office shortly afterward, and his administration had expressed hostility toward EU actions against American tech firms. An EU spokesperson said there was no knowledge of how Trump might react and affirmed that the bloc retains the sovereign right to regulate companies operating within its jurisdiction, stating that the decision was not linked to forthcoming tariff measures. Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, said the fine represented product degradation driven by a small group of complainants and warned that it could negatively affect European businesses and consumers. He argued that the DMA forces Google to remove features such as instant pricing and direct hotel availability and to weaken safety protections on Google Play.

Google may appeal the decision and request interim measures, including a suspension of the fine, while the Commission will monitor compliance and enforce further steps if needed.