Brussels Fines Google €890m over Digital Markets Act

The European Commission has imposed fines totaling €890m ($1.01bn) on Google for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA). At the same time, however, it acknowledged the company's progress in complying with the act and does not anticipate further sanctions at this time.

The first fine, amounting to 460m euros ($524m), relates to the preferential treatment of its own services in search results, such as for shopping, hotels, transportation and sports. Google received a second fine of 430m euros ($490m) for restrictions on the Google Play Store, which, according to the Commission, prevented developers from directing users to cheaper offers outside the platform for free.

These are the fifth and sixth fines imposed on Google for anti-competitive practices in the EU. The total amount of fines imposed on the company over nearly two decades has reached 10.38bn euros ($11.84bn).

Google has 60 days to comply with the Commission's requirements. The company criticized the decision and did not rule out legal action, claiming that the changes will require limiting certain search engine features and weakening security measures on Google Play.

The European Commission also said it is engaged in a constructive dialogue with Google. The company has already begun testing changes to its search engine, shopping ads and the Google Play service. Brussels will continue to evaluate these changes, and negotiations will also continue regarding AI-based features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.

(Reuters, bak)