The European Union has issued fines totaling €890 million ($1 billion) against Google, a decision that threatens to deepen existing tensions with the United States. The penalties, which are the largest assessed against a single firm under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), stem from findings that the tech giant illegally prioritized its own services, such as Google Hotels and Google Flights, over rival offerings in search results.
The fine covers a period spanning from March 2024 to December 2025.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen stated that the decision aims to ensure greater competition and enable other companies to innovate. EU competition chief Teresa Ribera echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the best products should succeed based on their own merits rather than ownership of the search engine.
Ribera also addressed concerns regarding potential US retaliation, noting that the EU is committed to enforcing regulations adopted by its sovereign institutions and pointed out that American authorities have been pursuing similar approaches in their own domestic cases.
Google has strongly criticized the decision. Kent Walker, representing the company, argued that regulation should improve products rather than degrade them. Google officials maintained that the EU's requirements force the company to lower the quality of its offerings within the bloc, asserting that the enforcement action does not represent fair competition.
The company faces the possibility of further financial penalties, with the Commission warning of potential periodic payments if Google fails to comply within 60 days.
The fines represent approximately 0.22 percent of Google’s total global turnover. The EU has the legal authority to impose penalties of up to 10 percent of a company's total global turnover for breaches of the DMA, which was established in 2024 to curb the excesses of Big Tech. This latest action follows previous penalties against Meta and Apple, which were fined €200 million and €500 million respectively in 2025.
Between 2017 and 2019, Google was hit with a total of €8.2 billion in EU fines, and a separate antitrust case resulted in a €2.95 billion penalty last September.
The move has drawn scrutiny from the administration of President Donald Trump, which has previously accused Brussels of unfairly targeting American tech firms and has threatened retaliatory tariffs. In a letter sent Tuesday, 25 Republican lawmakers urged the President to utilize tools such as trade investigations against the EU’s digital rules, labeling them discriminatory.
Despite the threat of friction, the EU and the United States have previously agreed to address these concerns through future talks, though those discussions have not yet commenced.
