Monday, 17 August 2026Europe · Analysis
Independent · Brussels & Berlin
Person
President of global affairs, Google
The European Commission says the search giant abused its gatekeeper position on Google Play and Search, marking the largest DMA penalty against a single company to date.
The European Commission says Google gave its own shopping, travel and sports services better placement on Search and blocked app developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside the Play Store.
The penalty targets preferential treatment of Google's own shopping and hotel services in search results and anti-steering restrictions on the Play Store, with a 60-day compliance deadline.
The European Commission's Code of Practice for general-purpose AI models takes effect this weekend, creating a voluntary compliance period before the full AI Act applies in 2026. Google, OpenAI and Mistral have signed; Meta says the code exceeds the legislation.
Google, Microsoft and OpenAI back the voluntary General-Purpose AI Code of Practice ahead of the August 2 deadline, while Meta refuses and xAI rejects the copyright chapter.
Senior executives from both companies say the voluntary code of practice goes beyond the AI Act and threatens European competitiveness ahead of the Paris AI summit.
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