The European Commission has fined Alphabet €890 million, roughly $1 billion, after finding that Google broke the European Union’s Digital Markets Act in two separate parts of its business: Search and the Play Store.
The decision matters for two groups that have spent years complaining about Google’s plumbing. Comparison services say Google Search gives Google’s own boxes better placement than rivals. Android app developers say Play Store rules keep them from sending users to other payment options, including ones that may cost less. The Commission has now ordered Google to change both sets of rules within 60 days or risk additional periodic penalties.
The larger piece of the fine, €460 million, concerns Google Search. According to the Commission, Google favored its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights services in search results instead of treating competing services even-handedly.
The remaining €430 million targets Play Store restrictions. The Commission said Google prevented Android developers from freely directing customers to alternative payment systems. In practice, those anti-steering rules affect whether an app can tell a user about a cheaper way to pay outside Google’s store machinery.
What Google has to change
For Search, the Commission said Google must handle third-party services in a “fair and non-discriminatory” way. That is the bureaucratic version of a blunt instruction: Google cannot use its control of the results page to quietly promote its own vertical services while rivals fight for leftovers lower down the page.
For the Play Store, the order requires Google to let Android developers promote offers to users both inside and outside the store. The Commission’s position is that developers should be able to tell customers where else they can pay, rather than being boxed into Google’s preferred payment path.
The enforcement action did not arrive out of nowhere. The Commission opened a non-compliance investigation into Google in March 2024 and issued preliminary findings in March 2025. Google then had time to respond to regulators’ objections. In May 2026, the Commission gave the company more time after saying an earlier Google proposal was “simply not strong enough.”
Google’s attempted fixes were not enough
Google had already tested changes aimed at satisfying the EU’s DMA requirements. Those experiments included removing the Google Flights widget for EU users and changing the layout of search results to give more visibility to links from third-party comparison websites.
The Commission’s fines show those changes did not settle the case. Alphabet now has a 60-day clock to alter the relevant Search and Play Store policies, with the threat of further payments if regulators decide the company is still out of line.
The case is another reminder that the DMA is being used as an operating manual for dominant tech platforms, not as a decorative policy pamphlet. For Google, that means the EU is no longer just arguing about whether its product design is convenient. Regulators are telling Alphabet which defaults, rankings, and payment rules it must rewrite.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
