The EU’s final blow to Google: 890 million fine and 60 days to change its main product

Google is not having a good month, especially as far as its activity in the European Union is concerned. The Commission has once again hit hard the business model of the American technology giant. The organization has made public a sanction of 890 million euros against the company for continually breach the Digital Markets Lawmarking a historic turning point in the regulation of large platforms on community land.

The regulatory body has structured this important economic punishment into two clearly differentiated blocks. Most of the penalty corresponds to practices that benefit its own tools on the web, while the remaining amount punishes the restrictions imposed on developers within its Android application store.

In addition to the financial penalty, the European Executive has established a two-month ultimatum for the multinational to radically modify its operation. If the firm does not correct this behavior before the deadline expires, it will face periodic penalties of up to 5% of its global annual turnover. In view of the events, we could soon see changes in some of the company’s main products, such as the search engine itself.

Favoring one’s own and stopping the competition: the reasons for the sanction

The investigation carried out by the community authorities concludes that the platform uses search to position your own products in privileged places. Services such as booking flights, searching for hotels or comparing purchases are highlighted with attractive visual elements, which means granting preferential treatment over competing alternatives. Nor can we say that we are surprised.

On the other hand, the investigation into the official application store determined the existence of obstacles known as anti-address policies. This means that the company systematically prevented software creators from informing their customers about alternative payment options outside the closed ecosystem, thus ensuring that the platform’s high fees were collected without possibility of replication.

The European directive has insisted that the rules of the digital market must be completely neutral and equal for all actors. The authorities have stressed that The best products must succeed due to their own technical quality and not because they belong to the company that manages and controls the main search engine.

This resolution is not an isolated event within the agency’s sanctioning history with respect to Google. Without going any further, it adds to the historic fines accumulated in recent years, such as the record penalty applied to the Android operating system, confirming that Brussels will maintain close surveillance over any abuse of a dominant position.

Google says users will suffer the consequences

As confirmed on RTVE, the reaction on the part of the North American multinational has been quick and has shown a strongly critical stance. Through its official spokespersons, the firm has assured that the strict application of European regulations will inevitably end up degrading the daily user experience who use their daily services.

As a direct consequence of this regulatory decision, the company has confirmed that it will be forced to withdraw very popular functions in European territory. Useful tools such as the direct display of flight prices or the immediate reservation of restaurants will no longer work in an integrated way, which represents a clear setback in the convenience of using the browser.

With this measure, Europe consolidates its legal framework of control over large technology companies with massive reach. The next two months will be decisive to see how search is restructured and how the digital market adapts to a scenario where the main algorithm must treat everyone equally.