The European Commission has fined Google 890 million euros under the Digital Markets Act, in two decisions announced on 23 July. The larger, 460 million euros, is for self preferencing in search: ranking Google Flights, Google Hotels and its own shopping results above competing services. The second, 430 million euros, is for preventing app developers from telling users about cheaper subscriptions and purchases available outside the Play store, a restriction the Commission found ran from March 2024 to December 2025.
Set against Google's own history the sum is modest. The company was fined a combined 8.2 billion euros between 2017 and 2019 under the older antitrust rules, and another 2.95 billion in a separate case in September 2025. Read as a headline number, 890 million looks like a discount.
Read as a mechanism, it is the opposite. The older antitrust cases punished conduct after years of investigation and left the product largely intact. The Digital Markets Act sets obligations in advance and attaches a clock: Google has 60 days to comply, and periodic penalty payments accrue for as long as it does not. The fine is the opening position, not the remedy.
That is why the response has been about products rather than money. Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said regulation should improve products rather than make them worse, describing the outcome as product degradation and arguing it forces the company to remove features Europeans value and to weaken safety protections. The company can appeal and can ask for interim measures suspending enforcement while it does.
The Commission has framed it as a question of what wins. Teresa Ribera, the competition commissioner, said the best products should succeed because they are better rather than because they belong to the company running the search engine. Henna Virkkunen, the technology chief, put the aim as more competition and more room for other companies to innovate.
Google is not alone in the file. Apple has been fined 500 million euros over App Store practices and Meta 200 million over its consent or pay model for Facebook and Instagram, both under the same law. Three decisions against three of the largest platforms inside a single regime is the point the Commission is making: the Digital Markets Act is not a case, it is a standing obligation, and the next 60 days will show what it can actually compel.