The European Commission is preparing to fine Google hundreds of millions of euros for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA), according to a report by Handelsblatt on Monday, in what would be the largest fine ever imposed under the EU's new technology competition regime.
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The Commission's case is based on a long-standing complaint that Google favours its own services, particularly in the areas of shopping, travel and local search, when ranking results. The investigation was officially opened in March 2024 as one of the first non-compliance investigations under the DMA. Brussels came to initial findings that Google's ranking practices constitute self-preference prohibited by Article 6 of the regulation.
A separate proceeding, opened in November 2025, deals with the alleged downgrading of news publishers in Google's search results. According to Handelsblatt, the decision in the self-preference case is nearing completion and is expected to be announced before the Commission's August recess.
The fine will be in the high triple-digit million euros range, which would put it above the 200 million euros fine imposed on Apple in April 2025 for its App Store guidance rules, the previous DMA record. Under the DMA, the Commission has the power to fine designated portals up to 10% of their worldwide annual turnover for a first-time offender and up to 20% for repeated offenders. At Alphabet’s most recently reported revenue, the 10% cap would be more than $35 billion.
The format under consideration is therefore at the lower end of the available range, which the European Commission spokesman, Thomas Regnier, has previously framed as a deliberate choice: the Commission, as he has said, is more interested in compliance than in maximum penalties.
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Google has opposed the case with substantial arguments. The company has described the changes Brussels is demanding to its search product as “the biggest downgrade in the history of the product,” arguing that the proposed measures would harm the user experience for European searchers in ways that benefit neither competitors nor consumers. The company has said it intends to challenge any adverse decision at the EU General Court.
The case has been unusually long. The DMA, in force since March 2024, was designed to move more quickly than the previous antitrust regime, which produced a series of multi-billion-euro fines on Google over more than a decade. A €2.4 billion fine for Google Shopping was upheld by the EU’s top court in 2024, after eight years of litigation.
The DMA case has already taken over two years to reach the stage of imposing a fine, which is fast by Brussels standards but slow by the standards the legislation was supposed to set.
Other DMA cases are underway behind this one. A separate Commission proceeding is preparing to require Google to give rival AI assistants the same access to Android as it gives Gemini, with a binding decision expected by July 2026. Preliminary findings on how Google should share search ranking and click data with rival search engines were published earlier this year and are still under consultation.
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The Commission has declined to confirm the amount to Handelsblatt. A formal decision, including the final fine, is expected within weeks.
