EU Fines Google 890 Million Under DMA

The European Union fines Google 890 million euros for breaking the bloc’s digital competition rules, in the largest penalty yet handed down under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The European Commission announced two separate decisions on 22 and 23 July 2026, targeting the way Google promotes its own services in search results and the way it limits app developers on its Google Play store. The company has 60 days to change its practices.

Why the EU Fines Google Under the DMA

The Digital Markets Act is a European law that sets rules for the biggest online platforms, known as “gatekeepers,” to keep digital markets open and fair. This is the first time Google has been penalised under it, and the 890 million euro total is the heaviest DMA fine imposed on any company so far. The Commission divided the penalty into two parts that address two distinct problems.

The first decision, worth 460 million euros, concerns self-preferencing in Google Search. The Commission found that Google gave its own specialised services, such as shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, more prominent placement than rival offerings. Google’s own results appeared at the top of the page or with enhanced visuals and filters, while comparable competitors were pushed down and given less visibility. The second decision, worth 430 million euros, deals with Google Play and is explained below. Together the two rulings mark a significant escalation of Europe’s effort to rein in the dominant platforms, and they follow earlier, smaller DMA penalties against other technology companies.

The Google Play Steering Restriction

The second fine addresses what regulators call anti-steering. Under the DMA, app developers must be free to tell their customers about cheaper ways to pay outside the app store. The Commission found that Google improperly prevented developers on Google Play from steering users toward alternative and often cheaper purchase channels. While Google is allowed to charge a fee for the initial customer it brings to a developer, the regulator ruled that the level of Google’s steering-related fees and the length of time it charged them went beyond what the law permits.

The practical effect is that app makers have found it harder to point users to better deals on their own websites, and consumers have had fewer chances to avoid the fees built into in-app purchases. The Commission’s message is that the store can compete on quality but cannot lock developers and users into its own payment system by making outside options invisible.

What Google Must Do Now

The Commission ordered Google to end both practices within 60 days. If it fails to comply, the company faces periodic penalty payments of up to 5 percent of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover, a figure that could quickly dwarf the original fine. Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice-president for competition, said the EU is “bound by the law” and that products “should succeed because they are better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine.”

Henna Virkkunen, the commissioner responsible for tech sovereignty, described the decisions as essential to fair competition in digital markets. Google is expected to contest the findings and has consistently argued that its search design helps users and that its store terms support a safe app ecosystem. The dispute also carries a political charge, coming at a time of trade friction between Brussels and Washington over the regulation of large American technology firms.

What It Means When the EU Fines Google

The changes should be visible in tools that residents of Germany use every day. If Google adjusts its search layout to comply, results for shopping, hotels, flights and local services could show a wider mix of providers rather than leading with Google’s own panels. That can make it easier to compare prices and find independent booking or comparison sites when planning a trip or a purchase. Because Google Search and Google Play are the default gateway to the web and to apps for most Android users in Germany, even small design changes reach a very large audience.

On the app side, the ruling could gradually lower what people pay for digital subscriptions and in-app content. If developers can openly point Android users to cheaper checkout options on their own sites, some of the fees baked into Google Play prices may fall. These rights sit alongside Germany’s own strong safeguards for buyers, which our guide to consumer protection laws in Germany explains in detail. The full effect will depend on how Google rewrites its systems over the coming two months, and on whether the Commission judges those changes to be enough.