Google fined at 890 million for favoring own services

With regard to the referral of users to alternative offers and purchasing channels, Brussels concludes that Google does not allow developers to “communicate and freely promote offers” or conclude contracts with users through the distribution channels of their choice.

The European Commission further argues that the level of fees charged by Google relating to the forwarding and the duration of the recovery period “exceeded what is considered compatible” with the Digital Markets Act.

In addition to fines, Brussels asks Google to “put an end to non-compliance”.

The company will have to treat third-party services presented in the search results in a “just and non-discriminatory” way compared to its own services and allow developers to distribute applications through Google Play to “communicate, promote offers and conclude contracts with users” also outside the application store.

Google will have 60 days to comply with the decisions, otherwise it risks periodic payments of up to 5% of its total global turnover.

The community executive points out that Google has already started testing changes to the way it presents its services in Google Research and has introduced changes related to the referral rules, which in its view constitute “good progress towards compliance”.

Google can now appeal to decisions.

This is one of the largest technology companies in the world, which provides services such as Google Search engine, Android operating system, Google Play app store, Chrome browser, YouTube video platform and digital advertising and cloud computing services.

The European Commission has already imposed large fines on the company for infringements of EU competition rules, for a total of more than EUR 11 billion, including the fine of EUR 2.95 billion imposed in 2025 for unfair practices in the digital advertising sector and the €4.125 billion fine for Android, confirmed by the EU Court of Justice this month.