The tech giant was fined for the third time in a week after being hit by millions of dollars in penalties in the US and France.
Released on September 5th, 2025
The European Union has imposed a penalty of 2.95 billion euros ($3.455 billion) on Google to back its own advertising service, marking the fourth time the Tech giant has been fined in a decade-long battle with the bloc’s competition regulator.
The European Commission denounced Google for a distortion competition in the 27-nation bloc, after investigating complaints from the European Publishing Council, despite threats of retaliation from President Donald Trump.
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In response to a fine against Google on Friday, Trump criticized the decision and threatened a broader trade investigation into the EU.
“We cannot make this into brilliant and unprecedented American ingenuity. If so, I will be forced to launch Section 301 to override the unfair penalties accused of these tax-paying American companies,” Trump writes of the Truth Society.
EU competition chief Teresalivera originally planned to hand out the fines on Monday, but delayed her move after meeting opposition from EU trade chief Maros Sevkovic over concerns about the potential US impact of lowering tariffs on European cars under the trade agreement agreed in July.
The committee said Google supported its own online display technology service to undermine its rivals and online publishers, and abused its market power from 2014 until today.
“Google abuses its dominant position on Adtech and hurts publishers, advertisers and consumers. This behavior is illegal under EU anti-trust regulations,” Rivera said Friday.
Regulators have been researching Google through AdTech since 2021, but in 2023, they recommended that the company sell some of its advertising services to ensure fair competition.
Google, a subsidiary of US Tech Giant Alphabet, criticized the EU’s decision and said it would challenge it in court.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global regulatory affairs director, said it would require “changes that will hurt thousands of European companies by making money difficult.”
“We are not anti-competitive in providing services to advertising buyers and sellers. There is more alternative to our services than ever,” she added.
Ribera said Google must move forward with “serious remedies to address conflicts of interest,” and warned that otherwise they would invite “strong remedies.”
The company will have 60 days to inform the committee how it plans to comply with the order.
The fine was the third person to be levied on the Giants in a week. The US federal ju judge on Wednesday ordered Google to pay around $425 million to collect information from using the smartphone app, even if people choose to set privacy.
On the same day, the French Data Protection Agency fined the search giant, 325 million euros ($378 million) for not respecting the Internet cookie law.
