EU gir Google en bot på 890 millioner euro for brudd på Digital Markets Act – første gang loven håndheves med milliardstraff

1. What the €890 million fine covers

The Commission took two non-compliance decisions :

• €460 million — Google self-preferenced its own services (e.g., shopping, flights, hotels) in Google Search results, giving its own offers more prominent placement than rivals' .
• €430 million — Google imposed "steering" restrictions on Google Play that prevented app developers from directing consumers to alternative, often cheaper, purchase channels outside Google's billing system .

2. How the Commission justified the fines

The Commission found that Google violated Article 6(5) of the DMA (non-discrimination for ranking) and Article 5(4) of the DMA (anti-steering / right to inform customers). The investigation, launched in March 2024, included large-scale stakeholder feedback and formal preliminary findings sent to Alphabet on 19 March 2025 . The Commission concluded the practices shut out competitors and harmed consumers by limiting choice .

3. Enforcement timeline and potential further penalties

Google must now comply immediately with the DMA's requirements. If it does not remedy the violations, the Commission can impose:

• Periodic penalty payments (daily fines) of up to 5% of Google's average daily worldwide turnover for each day of continued non-compliance .
• For serious or repeat infringements, fines can reach up to 20% of global annual turnover under the DMA .

The Commission has also already opened specification proceedings on 27 January 2026 to define precise compliance measures for Google .

4. Broader EU enforcement context

Android antitrust ruling (€4.125 billion finalised)

On 2 July 2026, the EU Court of Justice definitively upheld Google's €4.125 billion fine (originally €4.34 billion in 2018, reduced by a lower court to €4.125bn in 2022) for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile OS to shut out rivals . This was the largest antitrust fine ever imposed by the Commission and is now final after an eight-year legal battle .

Data-sharing and AI interoperability orders (16 July 2026)

One week before the DMA fines, the Commission issued two binding specification measures under the DMA :

• Search data sharing — Google must allow third-party search engines and AI companies access to its Google Search ranking data on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms .
• Android AI interoperability — Google must ensure that competing AI services (e.g., rival chatbots and assistants) can interoperate with Android on equal footing with Google's own Gemini AI .

These measures directly target Google's control over AI training data and distribution.

Transatlantic tensions with the Trump administration

The fines come at a period of acute trade friction :

• President Donald Trump had previously threatened tariffs on European goods in retaliation for EU enforcement against US tech companies, and specifically over digital services taxes .
• On 26 June 2026, Trump threatened additional tariffs on EU countries over digital service taxes, just before the Google Android ruling .
• The €890 million DMA fine was announced even as the Trump administration prepared a fresh round of trade duties against the EU .
• The fines have been described as a deliberate "test" of Trump's threats to protect Big Tech, putting Brussels on a collision course with Washington .