Brussels moves toward record fine against Google search business

Announcement of a landmark penalty under DMA expected in weeks

German media reports that the EU Commission is limbering up to issue Google with a record fine for breaching the Digital Markets Act. It’s unlikely to be the last.

The European Commission is preparing to fine Google hundreds of millions of euros for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) according to a report in German news site Handelsblatt.

It would constitute the biggest fine to date issued by the EU under DMA mandates.

The Commission’s case rests on the complaint that Google favours its own services when ranking results. The investigation originally began in March 2024, and early findings concluded that Google’s ranking practices did indeed contravene the regulation.

A separate proceeding was opened in November 2025 concerning Google’s AI-Overview and AI Mode and its deprioritising of news publishers when returning search results.

According to Handelsblatt, the decision in the self-preferencing case is nearing completion. Announcement is expected before the Commission’s August recess.

Google faces multiple antitrust cases

Under the DMA, the Commission has the power to fine designated gatekeepers up to 10% of their global annual turnover for a first offence and up to 20% for repeat breaches. Based on Alphabet’s most recently reported revenues, a 10% cap would clear $35bn, so a fine could come in easily beyond the €200m penalty the Commission hit Apple with last year.

Google has objected to the case on substantive grounds, arguing that proposed remedies will damage the user experience for European searchers to such an extent that no party benefits. The company has said it will challenge a fine in the EU’s General Court.

The DMA was designed to enable the bloc to move faster than the previous the antitrust regime allowed it to.

A €4.2bn penalty for abuse of the Android ecosystem was upheld by the EU’s top court in 2024, but only after an eight-year-long legal battle. The DMA has enabled the commission to move faster, although it will still have taken nearly two and a half years to progress from complaint to fine.

Other DMA cases against Google remain in progress. One concerns Google Gemini, or rather its rival AI assistants which Google is likely to have to give equal access to Android. A decision is expected on that in the summer.

Preliminary findings on how Google must share search ranking and click data with competing search engines were published earlier this year and are still under consultation.

It is not yet known how the Commission is going to react to the transformation of Google Search into a fully AI-powered interactive experience showcased at its I/O conference last week. Given that it looks as if the whole purpose of the exercise is to make it harder for web users to leave the Google ecosystem, it’s hard to see how that can coexist easily with Google’s gatekeeper status.

The Commission has declined to confirm the Handelsblatt-reported figure. A formal decision, including the final fine, is expected within weeks.