EU fines Google €890 million under Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has fined Google a total of €890 million for breaches of the EU’s Digital Markets Act, splitting the penalty between a search-related case and an app store case. According to The Guardian, the Commission said Google prioritised its own services in search results and restricted app developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside Google’s app store. Euronews reports the Commission has given Google 60 days to comply, with the possibility of periodic penalty payments if it does not.

The Commission’s search finding goes to the heart of how a dominant search engine can turn “results” into a storefront for its own products. Regulators say Google placed its own services — such as shopping and travel-related offerings — more prominently, pushing rivals down the page. That is not a technical footnote; it is the difference between being seen and being invisible in a market where ranking determines traffic. The app store finding targets a separate choke point: rules that limit how developers can tell customers about cheaper prices elsewhere, or alternative payment routes, keeping transactions inside the platform’s toll booth.

Google says the demanded changes would degrade products and harm Europe’s digital ecosystem, with its president of global affairs Kent Walker describing the complaints as driven by a small group of self-interested rivals, according to Euronews. The Commission, by contrast, says Google has already made “substantial progress” through tests that change how its own services appear in search, suggesting the enforcement action is as much about locking in a compliance trajectory as collecting a fine. For competitors, the decision is a template: once the Commission defines what “fair and non-discriminatory” display means, it becomes easier to file follow-on complaints when traffic patterns do not shift.

The case also lands in the middle of a trade climate where digital regulation is increasingly treated like an economic weapon. Euronews notes the fine comes as the Trump administration prepares a fresh round of trade duties, and EU officials insisted the timing was not linked. Even if the legal file is separate, the sequencing matters: Brussels is trying to force structural changes in US-owned platforms that function as gateways for European commerce, while Washington is weighing tariffs that can be dialled up quickly and broadly. In that environment, compliance deadlines and appeal timelines become part of a wider bargaining calendar.

Google can appeal and can seek interim measures to suspend elements of the decision, The Guardian reports. But the Commission’s order is immediate in its practical effect: within weeks, European users may see a different Google than the rest of the world, and developers may gain new ways to steer customers away from Google’s checkout.

The Commission says the fine is €890 million. Google says the fix will make its products worse, and the next version will ship anyway.