Google has been slapped with €890 million in EU fines for Search favouritism and Play Store steering nonsense.
The European Union announced the two fines on 23 July, with one landing at €460 million and the other at €430 million. Google has 60 days to pay the lot, worth about $1 billion, or face extra penalties tied to its global revenue.
The €460 million fine comes from a two-year investigation that produced a preliminary ruling in March 2025. The EU accused Google of breaking the Digital Markets Act by giving its own services “preferential treatment” in Search.
Brussels said Google’s shopping, hotel, transport and sports results were turning up more prominently than rival services. Competitors apparently did not get the same roomy bit of search-result real estate, which is awkward when Google owns the landlord.
In May 2026, Google won an extension after the Commission decided that its proposed fix was not sufficient. Google later told Reuters that the resulting changes were “the biggest downgrade in the product’s history”.
The second fine, worth €430 million, targets the Google Play Store. The EU said Google restricted developers from “freely communicating and promoting offers, and concluding contracts with users in distribution channels of their choice.”
Google was accused of stopping developers from offering payment options outside the Play Store. That included other app stores, which is the sort of thing a gatekeeper says is terribly complicated while counting the toll money.
The EU said that conduct breached the DMA. It said Google must let developers on the Play Store offer extra payment methods and alternative access to rival installation routes.
Google has been working with the Commission to keep Search and Play Store changes on the right side of the DMA. Brussels says it is assessing the changes and continuing its dialogue with the company, which sounds like everyone gets more meetings.
This is not Google’s only gatekeeper scrap in Europe. The Commission recently ruled that Google must share Search data with other companies, services and AI chatbots.
Those concerns are separate from the €890 million fine. Google has until January 2027 to deal with that particular regulatory headache.
Google can appeal the new fine, and probably will, because nobody in big tech writes a €890 million cheque without sending the lawyers in first.
