Brussels fined Google twice on 23 July, 460 million euros over Search and 430 million over Play

On 23 July 2026 the European Commission fined Google 890 million euros. Almost every headline converted that figure to roughly one billion US dollars and described a single penalty. The Commission's own press release, IP/26/1670, describes something more precise: two decisions, adopted the same day, finding two separate breaches of two different obligations under the Digital Markets Act. One imposes a fine of 460 million euros for self preferencing in Google Search. The other imposes a fine of 430 million euros for restricting app developers on Google Play from directing users to cheaper channels. The widely quoted billion dollar figure is a currency conversion of the sum of the two.

The distinction matters because the two limbs test different parts of the regulation. The first decision concerns ranking. Under the DMA a designated gatekeeper must not treat its own services more favourably in ranking than third party services, and must apply transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions to that ranking. The Commission found Google gives preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, over those of third parties, displaying them more prominently, including at the top of the search results page or by using enhanced visuals and filters, while similar third party services do not have the same prominence. An analysis published on the legal blog NicFab on 25 July identifies this as an Article 6(5) case.

The second decision concerns steering. Developers who distribute through Google Play are entitled under the DMA to tell customers, free of charge, about alternative and often cheaper offers, and to direct them to those offers. The Commission found Google prevents developers from freely communicating and promoting offers and concluding contracts with users in distribution channels of their choice, including third party app stores. The Commission did not hold that Google must charge nothing. Its press release accepts that Google can receive a fee for facilitating the initial acquisition of a new customer by an app developer via Google Play, and finds that the level of the steering related fees and the length of the charging period for those fees went beyond what is considered compliant. NicFab identifies this as an Article 5(4) case. What was decided was proportionality, not whether a fee may exist at all.

It is the first time Brussels has used the DMA against Google, as the outlet EU Insider records. The path to it was slow. Google was designated a gatekeeper in September 2023 for its online search engine. The Commission opened the two non-compliance investigations on 25 March 2024, and on 19 March 2025 informed Google of its preliminary view that the company was in breach. Google then examined the documents in both investigation files and replied in writing to the preliminary findings.

Teresa Ribera, the Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, said the best products should succeed "because they're better, not because they're owned by the company running the search engine". Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, said the two decisions confirmed the Commission's determination to apply the DMA, and that it would not hesitate to use its tools to safeguard the business and innovation opportunities the regulation opened up.

Google disputes the premise. In a statement reported by EU Insider, the company warned that complying may mean stripping out what it called real time search features Europeans love, and weakening safety protections on Google Play. That is the company's characterisation of its own products, offered in its own defence, and no court has tested it. The Commission's press release records only that Google may decide to appeal the decisions. It does not say the company has decided either way.

Some of the remedy is already in motion. The Commission notes that Google has proposed and started testing changes to how it presents its own free services such as shopping, hotels and flights, which the Commission says constitute substantial progress towards compliance, and further changes to how it presents shopping ads and content related services such as sports, which it is still assessing. Google has also rolled out changes related to its steering terms, described as good progress and to be assessed in light of the cease and desist order. Separately, the Commission takes note of Google's proposals for applying the principles of the decision to AI Overviews and AI Mode, where dialogue will continue.

Google must comply within 60 days or risk periodic penalty payments of up to 5 per cent of its total worldwide turnover. Several things remain unknown. The non-confidential texts of the two decisions had not been published when NicFab wrote on 25 July, and the Commission's communications of 23 July gave neither the case numbers nor the article references, so the full reasoning is not yet public. Whether Google appeals to the General Court has not been announced. Whether the ranking changes Google is testing actually satisfy the ranking obligation has not been determined. And the largest question, how the DMA's ranking obligation applies to AI Overviews and AI Mode, was not decided on 23 July at all.