In a move likely to intensify transatlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday fined Google $1 billion for illegally undermining competition due to its dominance as a search engine.
President Trump has already threatened retaliation against the European Union for what he sees as unfair targeting of American technology companies. Google’s move comes as it considers a new round of tariffs on the European Union and other major trading partners.
In explaining the 890 million euro fine imposed on Thursday, Brussels regulators said Google had used its position as the world’s top search engine to unfairly boost its services in areas such as shopping, travel, gaming and translation. Google displayed its own services more prominently at the top of search results, while relegating competing services further down the page, according to regulators.
The European Commission, which led the investigation, also concluded that the tech giant applied unfair restrictions on its Google Play app store, preventing app developers from communicating with users or carrying out transactions that could reduce the fees Google can charge.
The commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said Google violated the Digital Markets Act, known as the DMA, a law passed in 2022 to prevent the biggest tech platforms from using their interconnected services to lock in users and squeeze out rivals. Authorities have argued that the biggest tech companies have become so dominant in areas such as Internet search, smartphones, e-commerce and social media that they serve as gatekeepers and determine the fate of other companies and can harm competition.
“The best products should succeed because they are better, not because they belong to the company that runs the search engine,” Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president of the European Commission responsible for overseeing competition policy, said on Thursday. “This is the promise of the DMA, to protect fairness, choice and innovation in digital markets for the benefit of all European citizens.”
Google has 60 days to comply with the decision, including by increasing awareness of competing online services, or face additional penalties of up to 5% of its global turnover.
The company has been a frequent target of European Union regulators over the past decade, having been fined more than 10 billion euros since 2017. Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said Thursday’s ruling would require product design changes that would harm services for European users.
“It’s not fair competition; it’s a degradation of products,” he said. “Regulation should make products better, not worse. »
The fine is minimal compared to Google’s overall activity. On Wednesday, Google parent company Alphabet reported quarterly profit of $112.1 billion, boosted by investments in SpaceX and Anthropic.
Brussels officials will wait to see how Mr. Trump reacts to Thursday’s decision. On Friday, the White House is expected to announce new tariffs on trade with the European Union and other countries.
A European Union official said the fine was announced Thursday because it was ready — without taking into account developments in U.S. trade — and would not surprise the Trump administration.
Upon his return to the White House, Mr Trump warned that he would take “reactive action” against the regulation of US technology companies.
Last month, Mr. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries over digital services taxes imposed on American companies. In December, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said European companies including Swedish music service Spotify, German industrial giant Siemens and French artificial intelligence developer Mistral could be targeted with fees or new restrictions.
US regulators have also targeted Google. Last year, the company was ordered to share research results and some data with rival companies in a landmark monopoly case that bears some similarities to Thursday’s ruling in Brussels.
The European Union has long been the world’s most aggressive regulator of the technology industry in areas such as data privacy, competition and harmful online content. Even as the region’s leaders have taken steps to relax rules on artificial intelligence and other technologies to boost economic growth, the bloc has continued investigations and sanctions against some of the sector’s biggest companies.
Google was ordered this month by European Union regulators to lift restrictions that limit how rival AI companies can reach Android smartphone users. Meta was asked this month to make major design changes to Instagram and Facebook to make the services less addictive.
European regulators have also targeted Chinese companies. Alibaba’s AliExpress was fined the equivalent of $629 million last week for selling illegal, dangerous and counterfeit products on its platform. In February, ByteDance-owned TikTok was asked to make changes to make its service less addictive.
The European Union is also considering a law banning young people from accessing social media.
