European Commission fines Google €890 million in first Digital Markets Act enforcement

The European Commission has fined Google €890 million, equivalent to roughly $1 billion, for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in what marks the first enforcement action against the company under the landmark legislation. The decision, announced on 23 July 2026, centres on two distinct violations: the preferential placement of Google's own shopping and hotel services in search results, and restrictions that prevent app developers on the Play Store from steering users to alternative, often cheaper, offers on external websites.

Search results and the shopping disadvantage

The Commission's investigation concluded that Google displays its own services, notably Google Shopping and Google Hotels, more prominently in search results than comparable third-party offerings. Rival comparison shopping services and hotel booking platforms do not receive the same visual prominence, placement or functionality, the regulator found. This, the Commission argues, distorts competition in markets where Google operates both as a platform and as a direct commercial participant.

The concern is not new. In 2017, the Commission fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominance in search by favouring its own comparison shopping service. That case was pursued under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the EU's traditional competition law tool. The DMA, by contrast, creates ex ante obligations for designated gatekeepers, meaning the Commission does not need to prove dominance or abusive conduct in each instance; it need only establish non-compliance with the regulation's specific requirements.

Anti-steering rules and the Play Store

The second strand of the decision addresses Google's Play Store policies. Under the DMA's anti-steering provisions, app developers distributing through a gatekeeper's store must be free to inform users of alternative offers and to direct them to external websites where those offers can be concluded. The Commission found that Google prevents developers from freely communicating and promoting such offers, and from concluding contracts with users through distribution channels of their choice, including third-party app stores.

This mirrors a parallel investigation into Apple's App Store practices, where the Commission has also raised concerns about anti-steering restrictions. The DMA's Article 5(4) explicitly requires gatekeepers to allow business users to promote offers available outside the gatekeeper's platform and to communicate with end users about those offers without restriction. Google's failure to implement this obligation in full triggered the current finding.

Google's response: product degradation or regulatory overreach?

Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, rejected the Commission's characterisation. In a statement, he argued that the DMA's implementation forces the company to degrade the user experience. "This implementation of the DMA continues to break everyday products. To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love, like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants, and dismantle safety protections on Google Play," Walker said. He described the outcome as "product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants, with European businesses and consumers taking the hit."

Google contends that the required changes to search could harm travel businesses that rely on the platform for user acquisition and bookings. On the app store side, the company argues that sending users to third-party sites introduces security risks, including exposure to malware, phishing and fraudulent payment flows. The company says it is reviewing the decision and evaluating whether to appeal to the General Court of the European Union.

The Digital Markets Act framework

The DMA was proposed by the Commission in December 2020 and entered into force in November 2022, with its substantive obligations becoming applicable from May 2023. The regulation designates large platforms meeting specific thresholds, annual European turnover above €7.5 billion or market capitalisation above €75 billion, alongside 45 million monthly active European users, as gatekeepers. Alphabet, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance have all received gatekeeper designations for core platform services including search engines, operating systems, browsers, social networks, video sharing and online intermediation services.

For Google, the designated services include Google Search, Android, Google Chrome, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, YouTube and Google Advertising. Each designated service is subject to a tailored set of obligations under Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the DMA. The Commission's decision relates to obligations under Article 6(5) on non-discriminatory treatment in ranking and Article 5(4) on anti-steering.

Compliance deadline and escalating penalties

The Commission has given Google 60 days from the date of the decision to bring its practices into compliance. The regulator noted that Google has already proposed and begun testing changes to how it presents its own services in search, which the Commission described as "substantial progress towards compliance." Google has also rolled out modifications to its steering terms in the Play Store. The Commission said it would monitor implementation closely.

If Google fails to comply within the 60-day window, the Commission can impose periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of Alphabet's average daily worldwide turnover for each day of non-compliance. For a company that reported revenue of $307 billion in 2025, that could amount to more than $40 million per day. The DMA also allows the Commission to impose behavioural or structural remedies, up to and including the divestiture of business units, in cases of systematic non-compliance.

Broader implications for Big Tech regulation

The decision signals the Commission's willingness to use the DMA's enforcement tools aggressively. Margrethe Vestager, in her final months as executive vice-president for competition policy, has made clear that the regulation is intended to shift the burden of proof onto gatekeepers and to move beyond the case-by-case, ex post approach that characterised EU tech enforcement for the past decade. The Google decision follows a series of non-compliance findings against Apple and Meta, and a formal investigation into Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Office 365.

For European businesses, the ruling could reshape the economics of online distribution. Comparison shopping services, hotel booking platforms and app developers have long argued that Google's self-preferencing diverts traffic and revenue that would otherwise flow to them. If the mandated changes are implemented effectively, those businesses may gain more visible placement in search and a direct channel to communicate with users outside the Play Store ecosystem. Whether that translates into measurable market share gains remains to be seen.