The European Union on Thursday (July 23, 2026) fined Google €890 million ($1 billion) for violating its Digital Markets Act (DMA), saying that the platform unfairly favoured its own search engines and prevented app developers from steering consumers outside its Play Store. The company was fined €460 million for ‘search abuses’ and €430 million for the Play Store breaches.

What is the Digital Markets Act?

The DMA -- adopted by the European Parliament on September 14, 2022 and became applicable on May 2, 2023 – lays down provisions to regulate ‘gatekeepers’ to make digital markets fair and contestable. It identifies ‘gatekeepers’ as large digital platforms providing core services such as online search engines, app stores, and messaging services and lists a set of obligations and prohibitions to ensure fairness. The DMA stipulates that the ‘gatekeepers’ allow third parties to interoperate with the services in certain specific situations and allow their business users to promote offers and conclude contracts with customers outside the platform.

The ‘gatekeepers’ are also prohibited from treating their own services and products more favourably than similar services or products offered by third parties; preventing consumers from linking up to businesses outside their platforms; and preventing users from un-installing any pre-installed software or app.

Why was Google penalised?

The European Commission designated Google as a ‘gatekeeper’ under the DMA in September 2023. The Commission opened a DMA non-compliance investigation into Google on March 25, 2024, and informed Google of the preliminary view that it was in breach of the DMA on March 19, 2025. The decision for a penalty, coming more than two years since the probe began, was taken after a “thorough investigation, including feedback from market participants, and extensive dialogue with Google”, the commission said in a statement.

The commission said it found that Google was giving preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport, and sports results, over those of third parties in Google Search, thereby breaching its obligations under the DMA. Google displays its own services more prominently in search results, including at the top of the search results page or by using enhanced visuals and filters. In contrast, similar third-party services do not have the same prominence, the commission noted.

Under the DMA, developers using Google Play to distribute their apps should be able to inform customers of alternative, often cheaper, offers, for example on websites or alternative app stores. The commission noted that Google failed to comply with this obligation. While Google can charge developers for enabling new customers to use an app via Google Play, the steering-related fees charged by Google and the length of the charging period for these fees went beyond those laid down under the DMA, the commission said.

The commission said that it assessed the gravity, duration, and recurrence of the breaches to assess the penalty to be imposed on the company while also giving it an opportunity to appeal the decision. .

What measures must Google take to ensure DMA compliance?

The commission has said that Google must treat third-party services that feature on search results in a fair and non-discriminatory manner and allow developers to freely communicate with users and promote offers not only within but also outside the Google Play app store. The commission has given Google 60 days to comply with the decision, warning of periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its total worldwide turnover otherwise.

How has Google reacted to the penalty?

The global tech giant has slammed the decision, saying that it will have to take out some of its real-time search features popular in Europe to comply with it. “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,” Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker said in a statement, while keeping the option of a legal battle open.

What is the Google billing dominance case in India?

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) had, in October 2024, fined Google ₹ 936.44 crore for “unfair and discriminatory” conduct while exploiting dominance in the Android market in violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002, which prohibits abuse of dominant position. The case stemmed from allegations that the company harmed competition by pushing its Google Play Billing System (GPBS) for app purchases and in-app transactions while exempting its own platforms like YouTube from similar charges. Google appealed the decision, and in March 2025, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) reduced the fine amount to ₹216.69 crore while upholding the CCI’s main findings. The company moved the Supreme Court in July 2025, and the court has admitted the appeal along with one filed by the CCI.

What could be implications of the EU penalty?

The EU decision to impose a fine on the U.S.-based company comes amid strained relations between Brussels and Washington. The U.S. was against the implementation of the DMA, arguing that the law was ‘protectionist and anti-American’. Google is not the first U.S. firm to be fined under the DMA. In April 2025, the EU fined Apple and Meta with €500 million and €200 million respectively, for not complying with the DMA. Bloomberg had reported U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Jacob Helberg, saying that the DMA accounts for “90% of the problems” between the U.S. and the EU in trade negotiations. Following the latest fine under the DMA on a U.S. company, The Guardian quoted a senior EU official saying that the bloc had “no knowledge of how [Mr.] Trump was likely to react” while insisting that “the bloc had the sovereign right to regulate U.S. tech companies in its own jurisdiction and the timing of the fine was not connected to tariffs”.

Published - July 24, 2026 08:46 am IST