The European Union has slapped Google with an €890 million ($1 billion) fine for anti-competitive behavior, marking the first time the search giant has been penalized under the bloc’s landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The regulatory blow signals Brussels’ unwavering commitment to reining in Big Tech, even as trade tensions escalate with Washington.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, announced the ruling on Thursday following an extensive investigation. Regulators determined that Alphabet-owned Google violated digital market rules by favoring its own commercial offerings — including shopping, flight, and hotel services — at the top of search results while burying rival platforms. Additionally, the commission found that Google unlawfully restricted app developers from directing users to cheaper subscription offers outside the Google Play store.

“The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. “European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut.”

The penalty consists of two distinct fines: €460 million ($524.7 million) for search-ranking self-preferencing and €430 million ($490 million) for app store steering practices. Brussels has given Google 60 days to alter its business practices and allow external link-outs or face additional penalties of up to 5% of its daily global turnover.

While significant, the $1 billion penalty represents a fraction of Alphabet’s massive financial footprint, following reported revenues of $403 billion in 2025. It is also far from the company’s largest regulatory setback in Europe; Google recently lost its final appeal against a record $4.5 billion EU antitrust fine concerning its Android mobile operating system.

Google forcefully pushed back against the ruling, arguing that compliance ultimately harms the user experience.

“To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love — like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants — and dismantle safety protections on Google Play,” said Kent Walker, Google’s president of Global Affairs. “This isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants.”

The enforcement action comes during a delicate geopolitical moment. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened retaliatory tariffs against European goods in response to digital regulations targeting American tech firms, calling the policies unfair. However, EU officials emphasized that the regulatory timeline was entirely independent of trade disputes, pointing out that U.S. regulators have similarly targeted Google’s search monopoly in domestic courts.

Under the DMA framework, the EU classifies major tech platforms — including Google, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., and ByteDance — as digital “gatekeepers.” European regulators insist these companies must maintain a level playing field, ensuring European consumers retain access to transparent, non-discriminatory choices online.