The European Commission has punished Google with €890 million for violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA). It is the first binding penalty of its kind against the tech giant, arriving just a week after Brussels fined AliExpress €550 million under similar rules. But if you only read the headline figure, you'll miss what truly matters in this decision.

A fine in two parts, both at the heart of the business

The sanctions break down as follows: €460 million for self-preferencing in Google Search and €430 million for blocking Google Play developers who wanted to offer alternative payment methods within the store.

Both practices touch the core of how Google operates. The Commission has given the company sixty days to correct these behaviours. If it fails to do so, Brussels can impose coercive fines of up to 5% of Alphabet's daily worldwide turnover. That is a serious threat: for a company that earned over $350 billion in 2025, 5% amounts to astronomical figures.

A penalty with substantial money but limited legal weight

Here lies the first fact that puts the news into perspective: the €890 million is considerable, but falls far short of the ceiling allowed by the DMA. According to xataka.com, the regulation permits fines of up to 10% of global turnover. This would mean the penalty could have reached €35 billion.

Brussels has opted for a more moderate fine, likely because Google has already begun making changes during the investigation. In fact, the Commission acknowledges that the company has tested modifications to how it presents Shopping, Hotels and Flights in its results.

The buried paragraph that defines the real future

But what truly matters is almost buried in the official statement. Google must submit proposals on how it will apply the decision's principles to summaries and AI mode, that is, to the AI Overviews that already appear above classic search results.

This is where the battle becomes complicated. A language model that synthesises information from dozens of sources cannot separate its own services from competitors with the same clarity. Technical complexity here escalates dramatically, and it is likely to define how search will work in Europe for years to come.

A new form of regulatory oversight

Google has accumulated nearly €10 billion in European fines since 2017. What is changing now is the method. Previous sanctions were for traditional unfair competition: they arrived after years of investigation and punished already-established practices. The DMA works differently.

This regulation sets ex ante rules for designated "gatekeepers" (Alphabet has been one since September 2023) and penalises continued non-compliance. Brussels no longer debates whether Google is dominant. It takes that as given. It simply demands that it comply with the new rules.

Google protests, but negotiates

Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs at Google, has reacted strongly. He has stated that complying with the DMA will force the company to "remove real-time search features that Europeans appreciate" and to "dismantle security protections in Google Play". He has added that it is not "fair competition, but product deterioration".

However, the real negotiation over what comes next has barely begun. The €890 million punishes breaches already committed. What matters now is how Google adapts its future product to European rules that no one else in the world respects.