Google hit with ‘bare minimum’ EU fine for steering users to their services

The European Commission’s latest belated attempt of regulating Big Tech came in the form of a €890m fine for breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) on Thursday (23 July), which commentators immediately deemed “the bare minimum.” “It’s taken the commission over two years to get to this stage of the investigations, which is simply not good enough. It’s time to move quickly to force Google to end its anti-competitive practices,” said director of Open Markets Institute Europe Max von Thun. The commission found that Google’s search monopoly prioritises the company’s services such as Google Flights or Google Store above other results, resulting in a €460m penalty. Google was also found to excessively charge businesses directing consumers to alternative, often cheaper, purchase channels on Google Play, and hit for another €430m. The two fines combine to a total of €890m. “The aim of this intervention is to guarantee that third-party services who have equally good offers than Google, who are not worse in terms of content, in terms of substance, get a fair chance to be found by users,” a commission official told the press on Thursday. “Basically, the whole European population is using Google,” the official continued, saying that the size of the 482 million non-signed-in Google accounts active in the EU is part of the reasoning behind the size of Google’s bill. The commission had opened the case in March 2024. Google now has 60 days to come into compliance with the DMA. To read this story, log in or subscribeEnjoy access to all articles and 25 years of archives, comment and gift articles. Become a subscriber for as low as €1,75 per week.Read without limitsAlready a subscriber? Login