The EU is preparing fines for Google and new rules for Search and Android
This is reported by the Financial Times, citing internal European Commission documents and sources familiar with the preparations for the decisions. According to the publication, the decisions may be made public next week, although the final amounts of the fines have not yet been determined.
What Google could be fined for
The European Commission is considering two separate infringements. The first concerns Google Search, which may give preferential treatment to the company’s own services in the areas of online shopping, hotel bookings, travel, transport and other specialised search queries.
Back on 19 March 2025, the regulator provisionally found that certain features of Search display Alphabet’s services more favourably than similar offerings from competitors. In the Commission’s view, this model does not ensure transparent, fair and non-discriminatory treatment of third-party companies. A final decision in this case has not yet been reached.
The second case concerns Google Play. The European Commission believes that the app store’s rules restrict developers’ ability to inform users about cheaper offers and alternative payment methods outside the Google platform.
The regulator also has concerns about the commissions Google charges once a user has been acquired via Google Play. According to the European Commission’s preliminary assessment, the company may have set excessive fees and charged them for an unreasonably long period.
According to the Financial Times, the two fines could amount to hundreds of millions of euros. Once the decisions are finalised, Google may be given 60 days to comply with the requirements, and any subsequent non-compliance will result in periodic financial penalties.
The Digital Markets Act allows for fines of up to 10 per cent of a company’s total global annual turnover for infringements. For repeat infringements, the maximum fine may rise to 20 per cent, whilst periodic payments could amount to 5 per cent of average daily turnover.
What data must Google Search disclose to competitors?
A separate decision by the European Commission will concern competitors’ access to Google Search data. This procedure does not provide for the automatic imposition of a fine: the regulator must determine the specific measures that Alphabet must comply with to meet the requirements of the DMA.
Google may be required to provide third-party search engines with anonymised data on search queries, result rankings, clicks and page views. Access must be granted on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
Developers of AI chatbots will also be able to access this data, provided their services perform search engine functions within the European Economic Area. The requirements will also govern the procedure for transferring information, its anonymisation and the cost of access.
The European Commission launched this procedure on 27 January 2026 and is due to adopt a final decision setting out legally binding requirements by 27 July at the latest.
Gemini’s competitors will gain greater access on Android
Another decision is set to grant third-party AI services access to the Android features that Google uses to integrate Gemini.
Competing assistants will be able to launch using their own voice commands, retrieve data from the screen, interact with apps and perform actions on the user’s behalf. Possible scenarios include sending an email, sharing a photo, ordering food or changing a smartphone’s system settings.
The European Commission is also proposing to grant third-party services access to on-device models, Android system resources and standard methods for launching the assistant. Alphabet will be required to provide free and equal access to these capabilities via documented application programming interfaces.
The European Commission also plans to finalise the requirements for Android by 27 July 2026. Their implementation could weaken Gemini’s dominance and facilitate the integration of competing AI assistants into Android smartphones and tablets.
Google’s response
Google disputes the European regulator’s claims. The company states that the changes it has already implemented to comply with the DMA have reduced the quality of Search for European users and given an advantage to a limited number of competitors.
The new requirements will apply to Google’s services in the European Union and the European Economic Area. EU legislation does not provide for these changes to be automatically extended to Ukrainian users.
In April 2025, the European Commission fined Apple €500 million for restrictions imposed on App Store developers. Meta was fined 200 million euros for a model that required Facebook and Instagram users to either consent to the processing of their personal data for advertising purposes or purchase a paid subscription.
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