The European Commission (“Commission”) has found that Google breached the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”) by favoring its own services on Google Search and restricting app developers from directing users to anlternative, potentially more affordable purchase channels on Google Play.
The Commission found that Google gave preferential treatment to its own services, including shopping, hotels, transport and sports results, by displaying them more prominently in Google Search, while similar third-party services were not afforded the same prominence.
The DMA also requires app developers distributing their apps through Google Play to be able to inform users, free of charge, of alternative offers and direct them to those offers. The Commission found that Google restricted app developers from freely communicating and promoting such offers and concluding contracts with users through distribution channels of their choice, including third-party app stores. It also concluded that the level and duration of Google’s steering-related fees went beyond what is permitted under the DMA.
Accordingly, the Commission ordered Google to bring the non-compliance to an end and imposed fines of €460 million for self-preferencing and €430 million for its anti-steering practices, amounting to a total fine of €890 million.
(Commission – 23.07.2026)
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