BRUSSELS — The European Commission has fined Google a total of €890 million after finding that the company breached the European Union’s Digital Markets Act through practices tied to Google Search and the Google Play Store. The regulator imposed €460 million for what it described as self-preferencing in Search and €430 million for restrictions that kept app developers from freely directing users to alternative purchasing channels. Google has been ordered to end both forms of non-compliance within 60 days.

In the Search decision, the Commission said Google gave its own services an advantage over comparable third-party offerings in areas including shopping, hotels, transport and sports. According to the regulator, Google’s services received more prominent placement, including positions at the top of results pages and presentation through enhanced visuals and filters that were not made equally available to rivals. The DMA requires designated “gatekeepers” to rank their own and third-party services under transparent, fair and non-discriminatory conditions.

The €430 million Play decision concerns “steering,” or the ability of businesses to tell customers about offers outside a dominant platform and guide them there. The Commission found that Google prevented developers distributing apps through Google Play from freely communicating and promoting offers, or concluding contracts with users through channels of their choice, including websites and rival app stores. The regulator acknowledged that Google may charge for initially connecting a developer with a new customer, but found that the level of its steering-related fees and the length of time they applied exceeded what the DMA permits.

The two orders require more than payment. Google must treat third-party services appearing in Search fairly relative to its own products, and it must remove technical and contractual barriers that restrict Play developers from promoting and completing purchases both inside and outside Google Play. The company has 60 days to comply. If it does not, the Commission says it could face periodic penalties of up to 5% of its total worldwide turnover, a remedy designed to make continued non-compliance more costly over time.

There are signs that implementation will be iterative rather than immediate. The Commission said Google has proposed and begun testing changes to how it presents its own free services, such as shopping, hotels and flights, and called that work substantial progress. It is also assessing proposed changes involving shopping advertisements, sports and other content-related results. Talks are expected to continue over how the principles apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode. Separately, the regulator said changes Google has made to Play’s steering terms represent progress, while stressing that they still must be measured against the new orders.

Google rejected the findings. Kent Walker, its president of global affairs, said the decisions would degrade products at the urging of a small group of complainants. He argued that compliance would strip useful real-time features from European Search and weaken safety protections in Google Play. The Commission noted that Google may decide to appeal the decisions, but the Associated Press did not identify an announced appeal at publication. The regulator said it would keep working with the company as the measures are implemented.

The penalties are significant because they are Google’s first financial sanctions under the DMA, although they are not the first DMA fines overall. Unlike traditional competition cases, which can take years to establish harm under broad antitrust principles, the DMA gives large designated platforms a specific list of obligations intended to keep digital markets open before exclusionary conduct becomes entrenched. These decisions show how the Commission intends to translate those obligations into concrete rules for product design, ranking and commercial terms.

For Search, the practical test will be whether rivals can gain meaningful visibility without the page becoming less useful to consumers. For Play, it will be whether developers can present outside offers clearly and complete sales through other channels without facing fees or restrictions that neutralise that freedom. Neither outcome is guaranteed by a fine alone. The lasting impact will depend on the remedies Google adopts, the Commission’s assessment of those changes and, if the company challenges the decisions, how European courts interpret the DMA’s limits.

The case also illustrates the policy choice at the centre of the DMA: dominant platforms may continue to operate integrated services, but the EU says control of a key gateway cannot be used to tilt competition toward the gatekeeper’s own products. Google argues that some of the required changes will diminish features and security. Regulators argue that fairer access will expand choice and let better or cheaper services compete on their merits. The next 60 days will provide the first evidence of how that tension is resolved in Google’s products.