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On 23 July 2026 the European Commission adopted two decisions finding that Google had failed to comply with the Digital Markets Act, and imposed fines totalling €890 million: €460 million for favouring its own services in search, and €430 million for restricting developers’ freedom to point users towards alternative offers on Google Play. The figure is striking, but the heart of the matter lies elsewhere, in the order to bring the conduct to an end and in the scrutiny the Commission will apply to Google’s adjustments. The Digital Markets Act, the regulation that promises fair and contestable digital markets, is showing how it means to be enforced.
Self-preferencing in search
The first decision concerns ranking. Article 6(5) of the Digital Markets Act forbids a gatekeeper from treating its own services more favourably, in ranking, than those of third parties, and requires transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions. The Commission found that Google instead gave preferential treatment to its own vertical services, from shopping to hotels, from transport to sports results, displaying them more prominently, at the top of the page or through enhanced visuals and filters, while comparable third-party services did not enjoy the same prominence. Hence the fine of €460 million.
Anti-steering on Google Play
The second decision concerns steering, that is the ability of app developers to tell customers about cheaper offers outside the store and to direct them to those channels. Article 5(4) of the regulation requires the gatekeeper to allow business users, free of charge, to communicate and promote their offers and to conclude contracts with customers through the channels they choose, including alternative app stores. The Commission found that Google prevented all of this. The company may receive a fee for facilitating the initial acquisition of a customer through Google Play, but the level of those fees and the length of the charging period went beyond what the regulation regards as compliant. That breach cost a further €430 million.
Beyond the fine: the order to stop and the compliance dialogue
The two decisions do not end with the fine. The Commission has ordered Google to bring the infringement to an end, treating third-party services in ranking fairly and without discrimination relative to its own, and allowing developers, both technically and contractually, to communicate with users, promote offers and conclude contracts outside Google Play as well. The company has sixty days to comply, failing which it faces periodic penalty payments of up to 5% of its average daily worldwide turnover under Article 31 of the regulation.
The Commission acknowledges that Google, after a period of dialogue, has proposed and begun testing changes to how it presents its own free services in search, such as shopping, hotels and flights, and regards them as substantial progress; changes to shopping ads and to content-related services such as sport are also under assessment, while the dialogue on how to apply the principles of the decision to AI Overviews and AI Mode remains open. On steering, the changes already rolled out are considered good progress. Google may still appeal the decisions before the EU courts.
One front of a wider enforcement effort
The case does not begin today. Google has been designated a gatekeeper since September 2023 for its search engine; on 25 March 2024 the Commission opened the investigations into self-preferencing and the steering rules, and on 19 March 2025 it informed the company of its preliminary finding of a breach, to which Google replied by exercising its rights of defence. The regulatory pressure had also shown itself a few days earlier: on 16 July 2026 the Commission issued Google binding specification measures on interoperability in Android and on the sharing of search data, again under the Digital Markets Act.
The method closely recalls the one already seen in the enforcement of the Digital Services Act, where a fine opens a phase of supervised remedy rather than closing the case. It is the same pattern by which the Union is operationalising its body of rules on the large platforms, protecting the contestability of markets and the freedom of choice of businesses and consumers, within a digital economy that European law wants to keep more open.
Two tracks now remain. On the first, Google must comply within sixty days and decide whether to accept the decisions or challenge them in court; on the second, the Commission will keep checking whether the proposed changes are enough to restore fair ranking and a genuine freedom to direct customers elsewhere. The two decisions show that the Digital Markets Act has distinct and complementary tools, the specification that prescribes how to open markets and the fine that punishes those who keep them closed, and that the Commission is willing to use both against the same gatekeeper.
Author: Valentina Grazia Sapuppo
