EU fines Google €890 million for breaching Digital Markets Act

The European Commission issued a €890 million fine against Google on Thursday (23 July) for breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a penalty that commentators immediately described as "the bare minimum."

Investigation Findings

The Commission found that Google's search monopoly prioritises the company's own services—such as Google Flights and Google Store—over other search results, resulting in a €460 million penalty.

Additionally, Google was found to have excessively charged businesses that direct consumers to alternative, often cheaper, purchase channels on Google Play, incurring a further €430 million fine. The two penalties combine to a total of €890 million.

Criticism of Delayed Action

"It's taken the commission over two years [to get to this stage of the investigations], which is simply not good enough. It's time to move quickly to force Google to end its anti-competitive practices," said Max von Thun, director of the Open Markets Institute Europe.

Commission's Rationale

"The aim of this intervention is to guarantee that third-party services who have equally good offers than Google, who are not worse in terms of content, in terms of substance, get a fair chance to be found by users," a Commission official told the press on Thursday.

"Basically, the whole European population is using Google," the official continued, noting that the size of the 482 million non-signed-in Google accounts active in the EU was part of the reasoning behind the magnitude of the fine.

Next Steps

The Commission opened the case in March 2024. Google now has 60 days to come into compliance with the DMA.