EU hits Google with $1 billion fine over its Play app store and search. Google is required to change its policies for both Search and the Play Store.
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Available information indicates that A €460 million fine has been issued to Google for giving preferential treatment to its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights services in Google Search results.
The European Union has fined Google’s parent company Alphabet €890 million (about $1 billion) for two separate violations of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
One penalty is for giving its own products preferential treatment in search results, while the other is for blocking Android developers from sending users to alternate payment options.
The second €430 million penalty is for Play Store rules preventing developers from freely steering consumers to alternative payment systems that may be cheaper.
Statements
«is simply not strong enough.»
Available information indicates that Google is required to change its policies for both Search and the Play Store.
Separately, Google is required to change its policies for both Search and the Play Store.
As part of the ruling, Google has been given 60 days to make changes to its policies, or face further periodic penalty payments, in a development tied to the same story.
In Search, it will be required to treat third-party services “in a fair and non-discriminatory manner,” while it will also have to allow Android developers to freely promote offers to users both inside and outside the Play Store.
Google made and tested several changes to its Search services in an effort to comply with DMA rules, such as removing the Google Flights widget for Search users in the EU, and boosting links to third-party comparison websites via an updated search result layout.
The company has previously fired back at the EU’s criticisms of its Search product, telling Reuters in May that changes it made in an attempt to achieve DMA compliance “represent the biggest downgrade in the product’s history, creating a second-rate experience for Europeans to the benefit of a few self-interested complainants.” These changes were made prior to Google introdu.
Google was previously hit with a €2.42 billion fine in 2017 for a similar breach of the EU’s antitrust rules, after it was charged with giving its comparison shopping service an illegal advantage over competitors.
As for the Play Store, Google has repeatedly objected to rules requiring it to open up app distribution on Android systems, claiming doing so poses a security risk to users.
Google is also facing a reckoning over its Play Store policies in the US after Fortnite publisher Epic Games successfully sued the company over in-app purchase fees, and it will be forced to carry rival Android app stores inside its own.
The maximum fine for breaching DMA rules is 10 percent of the company’s global annual revenue — $40 billion in Google’s case, based on the $400 billion it reported for 2025.
“And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut, according to the latest reporting on the story.
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On the related details, A €460 million fine has been issued to Google for giving preferential treatment to its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights services in Google Search results, clarifying the wider picture around EU hits Google with $1 billion fine over its Play app store and search.
On the related details, The European Union has fined Google’s parent company Alphabet €890 million (about $1 billion) for two separate violations of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), clarifying the wider picture around EU hits Google with $1 billion fine over its Play app store and search.
