{"id":14879,"date":"2026-07-23T18:06:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14879"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:06:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:06:54","slug":"europe-just-fined-google-1-billion-the-day-before-trump-is-expected-to-announce-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=14879","title":{"rendered":"Europe just fined Google $1 billion, the day before Trump is expected to announce tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/_JF0D15b4Az4gpFr37j5uPrw3eo=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2019\/01\/22\/1548126298338.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The European Commission fined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/05\/google-eu-fine-ad-tech-antitrust\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a> the equivalent of about $1 billion Thursday for manipulating its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/08\/05\/google-antitrust-lawsuit-monopoly\" target=\"_blank\">search<\/a> results to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/03\/10\/live-nation-ticketmaster-state-antitrust\" target=\"_blank\">hurt competitors<\/a> and blocking app developers from directing customers to cheaper deals outside its Play store.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong> The penalty lands a day before the White House is expected to impose a new round of tariffs and follows a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/14\/jamieson-greer-eu-global-tech-rules\" target=\"_blank\">warning<\/a> to the EU from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to stop imposing fees on U.S. tech companies.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Driving the news: <\/strong>The fine is just one half of Thursday&#8217;s action. The commission also ordered Google to overhaul how it ranks rivals in Search and how it operates its Play store.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>These are the first penalties Google has faced under Europe&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu\/index_en\" target=\"_blank\">Digital Markets Act<\/a>, and the third against any company, after Apple and Meta last year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>By the numbers: <\/strong>About $524 million of the fine was for Google&#8217;s search violations and another $490 million for its Play store violations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The company has 60 days to comply.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>Brussels built an off-ramp into the decision. The European Commission called Google&#8217;s proposed search changes &#8220;substantial progress towards compliance&#8221; and its Play changes &#8220;good progress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The commission also said it would &#8220;continue its dialogue&#8221; with Google about how the decision affects the tech giant&#8217;s AI Overviews and AI Mode.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The fine print:<\/strong> Google must now treat third-party services &#8220;in a fair and non-discriminatory manner&#8221; in its search results.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It also must allow app developers to &#8220;freely communicate, promote offers and conclude contracts with users&#8221; outside of the Google Play store.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: &#8220;<\/strong>The best products should succeed because they&#8217;re better, not because they&#8217;re owned by the company running the search engine,&#8221; Teresa Ribera, the commission&#8217;s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition, <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_1670\" target=\"_blank\">said in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>European tech sovereignty chief Henna Virkkunen added: &#8220;Today&#8217;s decisions send a clear message: we will not hesitate to use our tools.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The White House and the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> Google said the required changes would degrade its products and hurt European businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;To comply, we are having to strip away real-time Search features Europeans love \u2014 like instant pricing and direct availability for hotels, flights and restaurants \u2014 and dismantle safety protections on Google Play,&#8221; Kent Walker, Google&#8217;s president of global affairs, said in a statement.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;This isn&#8217;t fair competition; it&#8217;s product degradation driven by a small group of self-serving complainants.&#8221; <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Flashback:<\/strong> The EU hit Google with a $3.5 billion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/05\/google-eu-fine-ad-tech-antitrust\" target=\"_blank\">antitrust fine<\/a> last September for favoring its own ad-tech services \u2014 prompting Trump to threaten Europe with new tariffs then, too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A U.S. judge separately found that Google <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/04\/17\/google-ad-tech-monopoly-antitrust-ruling\" target=\"_blank\">illegally monopolized<\/a> online ad-tech markets.<\/li>\n<li>Earlier this month, the EU&#8217;s top court <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/european-commission-eu-google-antitrust-fine-court-a1179334b95da2ba1125beed21bddcfd\" target=\"_blank\">upheld<\/a> a separate $4.5 billion fine over Google&#8217;s use of Android to cement its search dominance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission fined Google the equivalent of about $1 billion Thursday for manipulating its search results to hurt competitors and blocking app developers from directing customers to cheaper deals outside its Play store. Why it matters: The penalty lands a day before the White House is expected to impose a new round of tariffs&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/_JF0D15b4Az4gpFr37j5uPrw3eo=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2019\/01\/22\/1548126298338.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}