Google is reportedly violating Antitrust laws in the European Union by giving preferential treatment to its own Shopping, Hotels, and Flights search services over competitors such as Amazon, Hotels.com, and Kayak. The EU released its preliminary ruling today, stating that Google’s parent company also breached anti-steering regulations under the Digital Markets Act by blocking app developers on the Play Store from directing customers to alternative distribution channels.
Google can and will challenge the preliminary decision by the Commission, as well as make compliance chances ahead of the final ruling. The European Union is able to fine companies up to 10% of their global annual revenue for violations regarding the DMA. That means Google, and its parent company, Alphabet could be fined as much as $35 billion, considering they made $350 billion in 2024.
Google’s senior director of competition, Oliver Bethell believes that the changes Europe wants are “misguided”. Google also argues that if they “can’t show travel results that take people directly to airline sites, they typically end up with a more expensive ticket because airlines have to pay commissions to intermediary websites.” While also mentioning that the changes have led to traffic declines of up to 30% for some businesses.
The EU does not believe Google fairly informs users about
developers outside of the Play Store
When it comes to the Play Store, the EU believes that “Alphabet does not effectively allow Android phone users to be told about or directed to cheaper offers from app developers outside of the Play Store.” This is similar to what the EU did with Apple and the App Store, effectively forcing Apple to embrace third-party app stores. But in the case of Google, it’s more about the fact that Google doesn’t inform users that alternatives exist.
In Google’s blog post, Bethel mentions that the commission’s findings will “create a false choice between openness and security” and continues on by saying that the EU is “effectively forcing us to choose between a closed model and an unsafe one.”
This isn’t the first time Google has been investigated and fined for Search. In fact, the EU fined Google Shopping in 2017, about $2.5 billion, for abusing its dominance as a search engine. Google also wouldn’t be the first to be fined under the new DMA, as Apple was fined last year, and Meta has also been hit with a preliminary ruling that its advertising model is in violation.
