Google’s eight-year fight is over. The Court of Justice of the European Union has affirmed the record antitrust fine — 4.1 billion euros, or about $4.7 billion. There are no more appeals.
The original fine was 4.34 billion euros back in 2018. A lower court trimmed it slightly in 2022, but this week the EU’s highest court shut the door entirely.
At the heart of the case is how Google bundles its apps with Android. Search and Chrome come as defaults on virtually every Android phone — Samsung, Xiaomi, you name it. The EU ruled that gives Google an unfair advantage because most people never change their phone’s default settings.
Google’s argument was the same one Microsoft made years ago in its own EU battles: there’s plenty of competition on the platform. CEO Sundar Pichai said in 2018 that Android created “more choice, not less.” The court wasn’t convinced.
This isn’t Google’s only EU headache. Last year, the EU hit Google with a separate 2.95 billion euro fine over its advertising monopoly. And now regulators have the Digital Markets Act — a much more powerful tool that designates Google as a “gatekeeper” requiring extra oversight. The European Commission is looking at whether to use the DMA to force Google to open up Android to more AI services and share search data with competitors.
Google says it adapted its agreements in 2018 and is focused on “continued innovation and openness.” But much of that openness is being driven by legal pressure — like the Epic Games antitrust lawsuit that’s forcing Google to support third-party app stores and alternative payment methods.
