Brussels fines Google with €890M for restricting competition

BrusselsNew fines from the European Commission against a major US tech company. Brussels announced this Thursday two economic sanctions totaling 890 million against Google for restricting competition in its own services and, therefore, violating the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Brussels has imposed a fine of 460 million euros on the US company for favoring the use of its own services in the Google Search engine, and a second economic sanction of 430 million euros for imposing restrictions on competing companies so that they cannot direct consumers to alternative purchase channels to Google Play, which is the company's digital store for applications and platforms.

Sources from the European Commission recall that the large tech company is obliged to comply with community regulations within a maximum period of 60 days. Otherwise, Brussels threatens to impose periodic economic sanctions until it stops violating the digital markets law. In fact, the fine from the community authorities can amount to a maximum of 5% of the company's annual turnover worldwide, and the same sources assure that the 890 million euros from this Thursday only represent 0.22% of Google's turnover.

Brussels' offensive

The European Commission has imposed several fines on big tech companies for violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act in recent days, just before the summer holidays begin. Brussels imposed million-euro fines for AliExpress –at the end of May already fined Temu– for the sale of illegal products on their platforms, and has threatened to fine Facebook and Instagram –are part of the Meta group– due to their addictive design.

In this way, Ursula von der Leyen's executive continues to apply digital regulation and fine large technology companies – especially from the United States – despite Donald Trump's threats. The President of the United States has long been pressuring the European Union to deregulate the sector and stop sanctioning large American technology companies. For the moment, however, this is a red line for Brussels and the European club does not yield to the interventionist desire of the New York magnate.