Commission fines Google €890 million for breaches of the Digital Markets Act

On Thursday the European Commission took two decisions finding non-compliance by Google with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) for self-preferencing its own services on Google Search, and for putting in place restrictions on businesses to direct consumers to alternative, often cheaper, purchase channels on Google Play (steering). In this regard, the Commission issued Google a fine of € 460 million and a fine of €430 million respectively.

Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, said: “Google has fallen short of effective compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and today we have taken decisive yet balanced enforcement action sanctioning these breaches. The best products should succeed because they’re better, not because they’re owned by the company running the search engine. And European consumers have a right to be told by app developers where to sign up to the best offers, even when the app store owner does not get a cut. This is the promise of the DMA, protecting fairness, choice and innovation in digital markets for the benefit of all European citizens.”

Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said: “The two decisions we adopted today confirm our determination to apply the Digital Markets Act to safeguard business and innovation. We found that Google harms businesses offering similar services, such as shopping or sports, by not granting them the same level of prominence on Google Search. We also found that Google has restricted app developers from offering cheaper offers to customers in the Google Play app store. Google must now bring the non-compliance to an end and to refrain from continuing it in the future. Today’s decisions send a clear message; we will not hesitate to use our tools to safeguard business and innovation opportunities opened up by the DMA.”

Source: European Commission