BRUSSELS – In a landmark escalation of the European Union’s years-long campaign to rein in the power of large technology platforms, the bloc’s executive body levied an 890 million euro ($1 billion) fine against Google on Thursday, ruling that the American tech giant violated regional digital antitrust rules by skewing its core services to favor its own offerings over rival products.
The penalty marks the latest high-profile enforcement action from Brussels, which has emerged as a global trailblazer in regulating big technology firms, regardless of whether their headquarters are based in Silicon Valley or Beijing. The action comes shortly after Google lost an EU court appeal against a separate $4.5 billion antitrust fine, which dated back to a ruling that the company stifled competition and eroded consumer choice through the dominant market position of its Android mobile operating system.
The European Commission, which serves as the EU’s executive governing arm, framed the penalty as a measure taken to protect consumer interests across the 27-nation bloc. “The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. 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,” explained Teresa Ribera, the commission’s Executive Vice President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier reiterated the bloc’s commitment to fair competition, noting: “In the EU, businesses have the right to compete fairly. Gatekeepers have the obligation to ensure a level playing field and consumers the right to choose for cheaper alternative offers.”
Google pushed back fiercely against the ruling, with Kent Walker, the company’s President of Global Affairs, dismissing the penalty as harmful policy driven by narrow self-interests. Walker called the fine “product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants” that would ultimately hurt both European businesses and regional consumers. He also argued that the EU’s newly enacted Digital Markets Act, the regulatory framework underpinning this enforcement push, compels Google to eliminate popular real-time search features that European users rely on, including instant pricing and direct availability updates for hotels, flights, and local restaurants, while also forcing the company to remove key safety safeguards from the Google Play app store.