Google Fined $1.02 Billion Under EU's Tech Antitrust Rules

By Edith Hancock

The EU handed Alphabet's Google an overall $1.02 billion fine under its tech antitrust rules, saying the search-engine giant had favored its own services over rivals'.

The European Commission--the EU's executive arm--said Thursday that Google unfairly favored its own services on its widely-used search engine and that the company imposed restrictions on app developers, preventing them from freely steering users to other offers outside of the company's Play Store.

The EU's implementation of its tech law "continues to break everyday products," Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said. "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."

Thursday's fine is the company's first penalty under the Digital Markets Act, the bloc's digital antitrust rules. The 890 million-euro fine is divided between the commission's objections to the company's search engine and Play Store terms.

The EU's decision is a culmination of a yearslong investigation into Google's compliance with the law. Google has made multiple tweaks to how its products work, including testing results for services such as flights and hotels, testing changes to how it presents shopping ads and content, and changing its terms for app developers steering customers toward offers outside of its own Play Store.

The commission said it is assessing those changes.

Write to Edith Hancock at edith.hancock@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 23, 2026 06:17 ET (10:17 GMT)