Digital Markets Act
EU law regulating major platform gatekeepers; Brussels now preparing a record Google self-preferencing fine under Article 6(5) before summer recess.
On 23 July 2026 Brussels fined Google €890m for favouring its own Search and Play Store results under the Digital Markets Act, with a binding search-data ruling due four days later on 27 July.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
With three enforcement instruments in six weeks, is the Commission now racing to fine Google before the US trade deadline?
Timeline for Digital Markets Act
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European Tech SovereigntyBackground
The Digital Markets Act entered into force in November 2022 and became fully applicable in May 2023. It designates the largest online platforms as gatekeepers subject to obligations meant to keep digital markets contestable, currently six firms across 22 core platform services: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft.
Non-compliance carries fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover, rising to 20% for repeat infringement, with structural remedies including break-up orders available in the most serious cases. Enforcement runs through DG COMP and DG CNECT, with the Commission President holding personal sign-off on the largest fines.
The DMA sits alongside, but is legally distinct from, the EU's older competition-law toolkit; the AI Act's GPAI enforcement regime runs on a parallel, overlapping timeline, creating a crowded compliance calendar for the same handful of large platforms.
The DMA lands its first Google fine
The Commission fined Google €890m on 23 July 2026 for self-preferencing in Search and steering on the Play Store, its first DMA penalty against the company. A separate binding decision ordering Google to open its search-data pool to rivals under FRAND terms fell due four days later.
The fine sits alongside, but is legally distinct from, the older 2018 Android abuse-of-dominance case, which the Court of Justice only finally closed on 2 July 2026 by upholding a €4.1bn penalty. Two separate instruments against the same company landed inside three weeks of each other.
Washington answers enforcement with Section 301
The morning after the €890m Google fine, USTR opened a fresh Section 301 investigation into the EU's digital rules, calling the fine a source of "massive uncertainty" for US exporters. That followed Trump's threat in late June of a 100% tariff on countries levying digital taxes, a threat aimed squarely at the DMA's enforcement regime.
The DMA's enforcement calendar and the AI Office's GPAI enforcement powers, activating 2 August, now collide directly with an active US trade retaliation track rather than running on a purely European regulatory timeline, leaving Brussels to enforce under active trade pressure.
Google's DMA fine finally lands
Is the €4.1bn Google Android fine part of the Digital Markets Act?
How many DMA enforcement actions are running against Google at the same time?
Why is the EU preparing a record fine against Google under the Digital Markets Act?
When is the DMA Google FRAND decision?
What is FRAND in the context of the DMA?
What does the DMA require Google to share with rivals?
What fines has the EU issued under the DMA?
