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The European Union (EU) has fined Google a total of €890 million ($1 billion) for breaching the bloc’s digital competition rules, a move that could further strain relations with the United States.
The European Commission imposed a €460 million fine after finding that Google unfairly favoured its own services, including Google Flights and Google Hotels, over competitors in search results.
A second penalty of €430 million was issued over the company’s restrictions on app developers, preventing them from directing users to alternative offers outside the Google Play Store free of charge.
EU Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said the penalties were aimed at promoting fair competition and encouraging innovation.
She said the Commission wanted to ensure other companies could compete on equal terms in the digital market.
“After this decision, we want to make sure that there is more competition and also other companies are able to innovate,” Virkkunen said.
According to an EU official, Google continued to favour its own services, while the second fine covered conduct between March 2024 and December 2025.
Google criticised the decision, arguing that the EU’s requirements would weaken user protections and reduce the quality of its services.
Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs, said the company was being forced to remove features that European users value, including real-time pricing and availability for hotels, flights and restaurants, while dismantling safety protections on Google Play.
“Regulation should improve products, not make them worse,” Walker said in a statement.
He described the measures as unfair competition.
The penalties are the largest imposed on a single company under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), surpassing fines previously issued against Meta and Apple in 2025.
The DMA, which came into force in 2024, is designed to curb the market dominance of major technology firms and promote fair competition within the European Union.
The Commission said Google must comply with the ruling within 60 days or face additional periodic penalty payments.
Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera said the best products should succeed because of their quality rather than because they are owned by the company operating the search engine.
“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” Ribera said in a statement.
Google has repeatedly faced antitrust action in Europe. Between 2017 and 2019, the company was fined a combined €8.2 billion in separate competition cases. It was also hit with another €2.95 billion penalty in September 2025 under different EU antitrust rules.
The latest sanctions come as scrutiny of the EU’s digital regulations by the administration of US President Donald Trump heightens, which has previously accused Brussels of unfairly targeting American technology companies.
Despite those concerns, EU officials insisted the bloc would continue enforcing its digital competition laws without compromise.
