Google’s search services and app store told to treat third-party services t in ‘fair and non-discriminatory manner’.
Google has been fined by the European Union (EU) for breaching its digital competition laws for its search and app store services.
The European Commission (EC) found the tech giant to be non-compliant on two occasions under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The first was for giving priority to its own services in Google search for things like shopping, transports, sports results and hotel deals over rivals. This breached the self-preferencing rules, which states that gatekeepers – like search engines – must apply “transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions to such ranking”.
The second was around anti-steering. Under the DMA, app developers that distribute their apps via Google Play should also be able to inform customers, free of charge, of alternative, cheaper offers, and to direct them to those offers – whether that’s a website or another third-party app store.
The EC found the tech giant failed to comply with that obligation and would restrict businesses on directing users to third-party app stores.
The commission handed Google a €460m penalty for the search-related breach and €430m for the app store violation.
Going forward, the commission ordered Google to treat third-party services appearing in its search results in a “fair and non-discriminatory manner”, as well as allow app developers to make offers outside its own app store.
Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google and Alphabet told Affiliate Leaders: “This implementation of the DMA continues to break everyday products. To comply, we are having to strip away real-time search features Europeans love – like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights, and restaurants – and dismantle safety protections on Google Play.
“This isn’t fair competition; it’s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants, with European businesses and consumers taking the hit. Regulation should improve products, not make them worse.”
Google has already started testing changes for the way that it displays search results, which the commission noted was a “substantial progress towards compliance”.
Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the EC, 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.”
Affiliate Leaders has learnt there is speculation this fine could antagonise the US government, as a number of temporary global tariffs expire within the next 24 hours.
