EU set to hand Google massive fine for breaching DMA

The penalties relate to an investigation into Google’s Play store and its tactics around search ranking.

The European Commission is expected to fine Google “hundreds of millions of euros” in a series of findings against the tech giant over the coming week, sources told the Financial Times (FT) on Wednesday (15 July).

The penalties relate to a long-running Digital Markets Act (DMA) investigation into Google over the company’s tactics around search ranking and its app marketplace Google Play.

In March 2025, the EU shared its preliminary decisions from the probe, finding that some of Google Search’s features treated its parent company Alphabet’s services more favourably than its competitors.

It found that despite implementing some changes, Alphabet treated its own services, including shopping, transport or financial results, more favourably in Google Search results, and gave its own services more prominent treatment by displaying them at the top of search results.

In a separate finding, the EU said that Alphabet’s Google Play did not allow developers to inform users of alternative third-party payment options.

The FT, which reviewed internal documents from the Commission, reported that the expected actions against the company will also include daily penalties and other regulatory orders.

The exact level of fines and penalties were not specified in documents, the publication said, but it noted that the EU called Google’s non-compliance “serious”.

As a very large online service, Google is subject to strict rules around fair competition and platform safety in the bloc.

The company has come under EU ire numerous times, including being probed for allegedly “demoting” news and media publishers in search results and for using content posted to YouTube to train its AI – all within the past year.

Last September, the Commission fined Google €2.95bn for breaching antitrust regulations in the EU with its advertising technology practices.

German publication Handelsblatt was the first to report that the search giant might be handed a hefty penalty resulting from the investigation into Search and Play.

In its May report, the publication said that the expected high triple-digit-million-euro penalty could be the highest fine imposed under the DMA since its enactment in 2022.

So far, Apple and Meta are the only companies to be penalised under the law, with Apple receiving a €500m fine last year – the highest penalty yet.

The Commission’s anticipated penalty on the search giant comes as the bloc readies to decide whether Google must give third-party search engines access to search data – such as ranking, query, click and view data.

Google has been facing increased regulatory pushback in Europe in recent times. In June, the UK forced the company to let publishers opt out of having their content used to power AI features in Search, including its AI Overviews.

The country’s competition watchdog also ordered the company to tweak its search tool to help businesses better integrate with it and understand its workings.

Meanwhile, Germany, in a ruling this year, found that Google’s AI Overview outputs constitute the company’s own words, holding Google liable over statements Overview generated about two German publishers.

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