The European Commission fined Google roughly $1 billion Thursday over its search rankings and Play Store practices, a penalty landing just a day before the White House is expected to roll out fresh tariffs, adding to American trade officials’ grievances over Brussels’ treatment of U.S. tech firms.
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Regulators ordered Google to pay about $524 million for allegedly favoring its own services in search results and another $490 million tied to its Play store, where the company had restricted app developers from steering customers to cheaper deals elsewhere. Google has 60 days to comply. The penalties mark the first under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act against Google, following similar actions against Apple and Meta last year, a pattern critics say looks like a campaign against American companies rather than neutral enforcement.
The commission framed the ruling as consumer protection. “The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” said Teresa Ribera, the commission’s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition. European tech sovereignty chief Henna Virkkunen was more pointed, declaring, “Today’s decisions send a clear message: we will not hesitate to use our tools.”
Google pushed back, arguing the mandated changes will gut popular features and harm the very European consumers and businesses regulators claim to be protecting. “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,” said Kent Walker, the company’s president of global affairs. “This isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants.”
The timing has intensified friction between Washington and Brussels. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had already warned the EU to stop imposing fees on American tech companies, and he did not mince words after Thursday’s decision. “This is in addition to two recent actions by the Commission under the Digital Markets Act that target Google’s Android operating system and Search services that pose serious risks for the privacy and security of users, represent a de facto forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft, and impose unreasonable financial penalties,” Greer said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is not Brussels’ first swing at Google. The EU imposed a $3.5 billion antitrust fine last September over the company’s ad-tech business, prompting Trump to threaten new tariffs on Europe at the time. A U.S. judge separately ruled Google had illegally monopolized online ad-tech markets, and the EU’s top court just upheld a $4.5 billion fine over Google’s use of Android to entrench its search dominance.
The commission did leave some room, calling Google’s proposed search changes “substantial progress towards compliance” and its Play changes “good progress,” while signaling further talks on how the ruling touches AI Overviews and AI Mode.
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