Google hit with $1 billion fine for abusing its power in Europe

In a decision likely to intensify trans-Atlantic trade tensions, European Union regulators on Thursday hit Google with a $1 billion fine for illegally undercutting competition through its dominance as a search engine.

President Donald Trump has previously threatened to retaliate against the EU for what he views as the unfair targeting of American technology companies. The Google decision comes when he is weighing a new batch of tariffs on the EU and other major trading partners.

In explaining Thursday’s fine of 890 million euros, regulators in Brussels said Google had used its position as the world’s largest search engine to unfairly boost its services in areas like shopping, travel, games and language translation. Google displayed its own services more prominently at the top of search results, while relegating competing services farther down the page, according to regulators.

The European Commission, which conducted the investigation, also concluded that the tech giant used unfair restrictions on its Google Play app store that prevent app developers from communicating with users, or conducting transactions that could reduce the fees Google can collect.

The commission, the executive arm of the EU, said Google violated the Digital Markets Act, known as the DMA, a law passed in 2022 to stop the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services to box in users and squeeze out rivals.

Google has 60 days to comply with the decision, including increasing the prominence of rival online services, or risks further penalties of up to 5% of its worldwide revenue.

The company has been a frequent target of EU regulators over the past decade, having been fined more than 10 billion euros since 2017. Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel, said Thursday’s decision would require product design changes that will harm services for European users.

“This isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation,” he said. “Regulation should improve products, not make them worse.”

The fine is small in comparison with Google’s overall business. On Wednesday, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported a quarterly profit of $112.1 billion.

American regulators have also targeted Google. Last year, the company was ordered to share search results and some data with rival companies as part of a landmark monopoly case that has some similarities to Thursday’s ruling in Brussels.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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