According to Handelsblatt, Google is expected to receive a significant EU fine amounting to hundreds of millions of euros before the summer.

      The European Commission is reportedly set to impose a fine on Google amounting to several hundreds of millions of euros for violating the Digital Markets Act, as reported by Handelsblatt on Monday. This would mark the largest penalty ever under the bloc’s new technology competition framework.

      The case against Google stems from a longstanding complaint alleging that the company preferentially ranks its own services, particularly in shopping, travel, and local searches. This investigation was officially initiated in March 2024 as one of the first probes into non-compliance under the DMA. Initial findings from Brussels indicated that Google's ranking methods constituted self-preferencing, which is prohibited by Article 6 of the regulation.

      A separate investigation initiated in November 2025 addresses claims that Google is lowering the visibility of news publishers in search results.

      According to Handelsblatt, a decision regarding the self-preferencing case is near completion and is anticipated to be announced before the Commission’s August recess. The penalty is likely to be in the high triple-digit millions, surpassing the €200 million fine imposed on Apple in April 2025 for violations related to App Store steering, which previously set the DMA record.

      Under the DMA, the Commission has the authority to fine designated gatekeepers up to 10% of their global annual turnover for a first violation and up to 20% for repeat offenses. Based on Alphabet’s most recent reported revenues, a 10% penalty could exceed $35 billion. Therefore, the amount being considered falls at the lower end of the possible range, which European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier has characterized as a conscious decision focused more on ensuring compliance than on imposing maximum fines.

      Google has contested the case on substantive grounds, branding the changes that Brussels is demanding for its search product as “the biggest downgrade in the product’s history.” The company argues that these proposed changes would negatively impact the user experience for European search users, without benefiting competitors or consumers.

      Google has indicated its intention to challenge any unfavorable ruling in the EU’s General Court.

      The case has an unusually extended timeline. The DMA, enacted in March 2024, was intended to expedite enforcement compared to the previous antitrust framework, which resulted in a series of multibillion-euro fines against Google over more than ten years. The €2.4 billion penalty for Google Shopping was upheld by the EU’s highest court in 2024 after eight years of litigation. The DMA case has taken more than two years to reach the fining phase, which, while relatively quick by Brussels standards, is slower than the expedited process that the legislation aimed to establish.

      Additional DMA cases are in progress behind this one. Another Commission process is preparing to mandate that Google provide competing AI assistants with the same access to Android that it grants to Gemini, with a binding decision expected by July 2026. Preliminary findings regarding Google’s obligation to share search ranking and click data with rival search engines were released earlier this year and are still under consultation.

      The Commission has not confirmed the figure reported by Handelsblatt, but a formal decision, including the final fine, is expected in the coming weeks.