Teresa Ribera
EC Executive Vice-President for competition; announced Google's first DMA fine, 23 July 2026.
On 23 July 2026 Teresa Ribera announced the Commission's first Digital Markets Act penalty against Google: an €890m fine for self-preferencing in Search and steering on the Play Store.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026 · Appears in 2 active topics
By calling US pressure blackmail, has Ribera committed Brussels to enforcing all three Google instruments at once?
Timeline for Teresa Ribera
Mentioned in: Three enforcement checks came back empty
European Tech SovereigntySigned off the Article 6(5) decisions as competition chief
European Tech Sovereignty: Google fined €890m four days before EU deadlineannounced the Article 102 interim measures and the five-day compliance deadline
European Tech Sovereignty: Brussels used antitrust to reopen WhatsAppCalled US pressure on EU digital enforcement blackmail and said the rulebook is not up for negotiation
European Tech Sovereignty: Brussels readies record Google DMA fineWarned against replacing one energy dependency with another
European Energy Markets: TTF breaks EUR 50; US LNG hits 58%Background
Teresa Ribera is the European Commission's Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, a portfolio that fuses competition enforcement with the EU's green industrial policy. A Spanish environmental lawyer, she served as Spain's Minister for Ecological Transition from 2018 to 2024 before joining the von der Leyen II Commission in November 2024, taking on what is effectively Margrethe Vestager's former role as the EU's chief competition enforcer.
Her tenure has been defined by escalating Digital Markets Act enforcement against the largest US platforms, including the Google Search-data and self-preferencing cases and the order forcing Meta to reopen WhatsApp to rival AI assistants. Her dual mandate also covers clean energy policy; in May 2026 she warned Europe should avoid replacing one energy dependency with another as US LNG reached 58% of EU imports.
Ribera calls US pressure blackmail
Ribera announced the Commission's first Digital Markets Act fine against Google on 23 July 2026, €890m for self-preferencing in Search and steering on the Play Store, and is committed to pursuing a binding FRAND ruling on Google's search training data that would benefit Mistral, Aleph Alpha and other European AI firms.
When Washington named DMA enforcement a Section 301 target days later, Ribera called the pressure blackmail, signalling Brussels will not sequence its enforcement calendar around US trade retaliation, a stance that raises the prospect of simultaneous escalation across the Google, Meta and Apple gatekeeper proceedings she oversees.