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Brussels prepares fresh Google fines as Big Tech enforcement increases

Decisions will test whether the EU can police digital markets without reigniting tensions with Washington

A Google headquarters sign directs visitors on Charleston Road, with a person riding a colorful Google bike in the background.Brussels is this week also set to decide whether Google must give third-party search engines access to search data© David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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Barbara Moens in Brussels

PublishedJul 15 2026

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The European Commission is set to unveil a series of decisions against Google over the coming week, escalating enforcement against Big Tech just as tensions with Washington over the EU’s digital rule book have begun to ease.

The EU’s enforcement arm will issue fines worth hundreds of millions of euros in separate decisions against Google, according to multiple people familiar with the move and internal Commission documents seen by the FT.

The enforcement action is set to also include the threat of daily penalty payments and fresh regulatory orders under the Digital Markets Act.

The fines relate to two long-awaited investigations. In the first, the Commission is expected to find that Google is illegally favouring its own shopping, travel and other specialised services over rivals in Google search results.

In the second, it is expected to require Google to give app developers in its Play Store greater freedom to direct users to alternative mobile app systems.

Under the bloc’s DMA, companies can face penalties of up to 10 per cent of global turnover. Google’s parent company Alphabet reported revenue of $402.83bn last year.

Google also risks periodic penalty payments if it fails to comply with these aspects of the DMA within 60 days, despite months of negotiations between the company and the Commission aimed at resolving the probes through a fine for past conduct alone.

The precise level of the fines and any additional penalties is not specified in the documents. However, they do specify that Google’s non-compliance “should be considered as serious”.

Last year, the EU fined Apple and Meta €500mn and €200mn respectively for breaching DMA rules over a shorter period of time. The new action against Google comes after antitrust regulators fined the company more than €8bn between 2017 and 2019.

Google said it was “keen to bring these investigations to a close so we can get back to developing innovative products for our users.”

It added: “The changes we’ve already made to Search under the DMA represent the biggest downgrade in the product’s history, creating a second-rate experience for Europeans to the benefit of a few self-interested complainants.”

Brussels’ move against the Big Tech giant comes as tensions between the EU and the US over the bloc’s digital rule book appear to have eased. US President Donald Trump had previously hit out at the EU’s fines against US tech companies, calling them a “form of taxation”.

The fines are set to follow two other moves by Brussels against Google.

This week, Brussels is set to decide whether Google must give third-party search engines access to search data, such as ranking, query, click and view data. That decision, which is part of a regulatory procedure under the DMA, is highly sensitive for Google, as the company argues it would jeopardise users’ privacy and amount to regulatory over-reach.

The Commission will also set out the extent to which Google must give third-party AI providers access to the same features available to its Gemini service, to ensure a level playing field in AI tools.

The Commission is under pressure from civil society groups, European lawmakers and other tech companies to continue enforcing its Digital Markets Act, which was designed to curb tech giants’ dominance of the digital marketplace.

That pressure has grown as the bloc seeks greater “tech sovereignty” to reduce its reliance on US technology providers, while ensuring a level playing field for European groups developing AI products.

The Commission declined to comment. Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

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