The European Commission is launching a fight against Google’s search dominance. Will Google repent or will it face a new billion-dollar fine?

The feud between Google and the European Commission is far from over. According to Bloomberg, the Commission is preparing a formal complaint against parent company Alphabet. Google is violating provisions of the Digital Markets Act by using its search dominance to crowd out third-party services.

The Commission launched an investigation in March and the first results will be published by the end of October, anonymous sources told Bloomberg. Alphabet is allegedly abusing its Google search engine to favor its own services such as Google Shopping and Google Flights. However, the DMA stipulates that Google, as a so-called usher must not discriminate against third parties.

Pour the wine

However, Google seems to be willing to mix water with wine. The company’s legal department has already held a closed meeting with the Commission to explain changes to its search products. Google wants to make it easier to navigate from its services to competing services or to provide direct access to hotel and airline ticket providers, among other things.

According to Google, this will maintain a balance between the needs of different types of websites and user choice. It remains to be seen whether the European Commission agrees. The transition to the new European legislation, which is in full swing, could give Google additional time to meet Europe’s requirements. A ruling is not expected until spring 2025 at the earliest.

In any case, Google benefits from avoiding a new sanction. After a legal battle lasting years, a fine of 2.4 billion US dollars was recently imposed for unfair competition with Google Shopping. Now and then, Google comes out on top: a fine of 1.5 billion euros for the AdSense platform was canceled on appeal. In addition to Google, Apple and Meta are also on the EU’s radar.