The European Commission has accused Google of violating EU antitrust rules, saying the company favors its services like shopping and flights in search results over competitors. Google could be fined up to $35 billion and must also adjust its Play Store app store rules to meet the new DMA requirements.
If ultimately found guilty, Google faces a fine of up to 10% of its global annual revenue. Given that parent company Alphabet’s revenue in 2024 was $350 billion, the maximum fine could reach $35 billion, Google can now either dispute the charges or make additional changes to comply with EU regulations, The Verge reports.
European Commission Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera said that Google is violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in several cases, including in search results and in its Play Store developer policy. In the first case, the company promotes its own services in search. This does not allow competitors to get a fair assessment and limits consumer choice, Ribera said. In turn, Oliver Bettel, Google’s senior director of competition, called the EU’s allegations “wrong” and warned that banning direct links to airline websites could lead to higher ticket prices due to intermediary fees.
As for the Play Store, the EU believes that Google is preventing Android users from learning about better apps from third-party developers. But Bethel counters that the Commission's demands create a “false choice between openness and security“. According to him, the EU is effectively forcing the company to either make the ecosystem closed, like Apple, or weaken consumer protection against fraudulent links to apps.
Another European Commission representative, Henna Virkunen, stressed that Google's actions are harming both European and foreign companies that depend on Google. According to her, compliance with the DMA is crucial to ensuring a level playing field and stimulating innovation in the digital sphere.
We recall that the charges against Google followed the March EU investigation into the company's promotion of its own services in search, as was already the case in 2017, when Google was fined 2.4 billion euros for manipulating Google Shopping.
Previously, Google made changes to its search engine in an attempt to comply with the DMA requirements, removing the Google Flights widget and adding more links to third-party services. However, tensions between the EU and the US tech giants are growing, notes The Verge, especially after statements by Donald Trump, who called the EU fines a form of hidden tax on American companies.