Brussels fines Google €2.95 billion... no wait, another €890 million, this time over Search and Play Store

Key points

• The European Commission fined Google €890 million (about $1 billion) on Thursday for breaking the Digital Markets Act.
• €460 million covers Google favouring its own shopping, hotel and sports results in Search; €430 million covers Play Store rules that stop app developers pointing users to cheaper deals elsewhere.
• Google has 60 days to end the practices or face daily penalty payments of up to 5% of its worldwide turnover.
• The company was designated a DMA "gatekeeper" for Google Search in September 2023, with the non-compliance probe opened in March 2024.
• This follows a €2.95 billion adtech fine from the Commission in September and a €325 million French data protection fine over Gmail ads the same month.

Google owes Europe another nine figures. The European Commission announced on Thursday that the company must pay €890 million, roughly $1 billion, for breaking the Digital Markets Act, the EU's competition rulebook for the largest online platforms.

The fine splits in two. €460 million for pushing its own services above rivals in search results, €430 million for how it runs the Google Play app store.

What did Google actually do wrong?

The Commission found that Google gave preferential treatment to its own shopping, hotel and sports results over competing sites in Search. A small hotel comparison service had no real chance of ranking against Google's own hotel box, regardless of which offered the better deal.

The Play Store problem was distinct. Google's rules blocked app developers from telling their own users about cheaper prices available outside the store. A music app that wanted to flag a cheaper web subscription simply could not say so. Both practices are banned under the DMA for companies designated as "gatekeepers", the label the EU gives to platforms large enough to set the terms of the market. Google Search received that designation in September 2023, and the Commission opened its non-compliance investigation in March 2024.

What happens next?

Google has 60 days to stop the offending behaviour. Miss that deadline and the Commission can impose daily penalties of up to 5% of worldwide turnover, which for Alphabet is a consequential number. An appeal is almost certain.

The Commission noted that Google has begun testing changes to how its own services appear in search and has updated its developer steering rules. Brussels called that "substantial progress" but insufficient to avoid the fine.

"The best products should succeed because they're better, not because they're owned by the company running the search engine," said Teresa Ribera, the Commission's Executive Vice-President, in the official statement.

How does this fit with Google's other European fines?

This is our third Digital Markets Act story since 3 July, and the pattern is consistent. Here is the recent tally:

All four decisions circle the same underlying question: whether Google's default services get an unfair advantage because Google controls the infrastructure around them. We covered the €4.1 billion Android ruling when Google lost its final appeal on 3 July.

Should you worry?

If enforcement sticks, searches for hotels or flights should surface more independent comparison sites. Apps you use daily, from streaming services to dating platforms, should be free to advertise when a subscription is cheaper on their own website. That is the whole point of the DMA: let smaller companies compete without paying a toll to whoever owns the search box or the app store. Whether Thursday's fine actually shifts Google's behaviour is the thing worth watching, because substantial progress and full compliance are not the same thing.