EU Says Play Store & Google Search Violate the DMA

The stakes for IT firms are raised when the European Commission releases preliminary conclusions about infringement of legislation governing the digital market. After months of investigation, EU Commission enforcers of the bloc’s hallmark market contestability rule released preliminary conclusions Wednesday that Google Search and its Play Store app marketplace may have violated the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).

Tech giants Apple and Google have received a strong warning from the European Commission that they have violated the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which could result in severe fines and modifications to their business practices in Europe. The Commission revealed preliminary results on March 19, 2025, just after the regime took effect, the EU has been looking into some aspects of Google’s operations, indicating that Google’s search engine tactics may violate the DMA by giving preference to its own services over those of rivals. This charge is in line with worries expressed over Apple’s interoperability policies, which are being examined in light of the Commission’s most recent orders.

Google is at risk since confirmed DMA breaches can result in fines of up to 10% of worldwide yearly revenue. It’s crucial to remember that the EU hasn’t yet come to a definitive decision about this investigation.

Two preliminary conclusions have been reached by the EU regarding Google: One has to do with Google Search, where Commission enforcers feel Google is violating the DMA’s prohibition on favouring its own services over those of competitors.

In a news statement, the EU stated that Alphabet gives preference to its own services over comparable services provided by third parties in Google search results, including shopping, hotel reservations, transportation, and financial and sports results.

More precisely, Alphabet prioritizes its own services above others by placing them at the top of Google search results or in special areas with improved visual formats and filtering capabilities.

The second conclusion relates to Google’s Play Store, a marketplace for mobile apps, where the EU believes Google is violating the DMA by blocking app developers from freely directing users to other, uncontrolled channels in search of better deals.

For example, the Commission stated that “Alphabet technically prevents certain aspects of steering, by preventing app developers from steering customers to the offers and distribution channels of their choice.”

“Although Alphabet may be compensated for helping an app developer get a new user through Google Play, the fees that Alphabet charges are excessive. Alphabet, for instance, charges developers a hefty fee over an excessively long period of time for each digital product and service transaction,” the statement said.

The iPhone company was fined €1.84 billion a year ago by the EU for unfair steering rules after a protracted competitive probe into the iOS music streaming industry that preceded the DMA.

The conclusions relating to Google’s business come after past DMA enforcement proceedings against other digital firms. Last summer, it also announced preliminary findings against Apple’s App Store for violating the DMA rules. However, the EU has not yet made a final decision in any of these instances.

In reaction to the DMA’s implementation, Google has changed the way it runs its search engine and Play Store in the EU, but the Commission feels that these modifications fall short.

Google’s rival aggregation and search websites have been especially outspoken in their criticism of the company’s modifications, claiming that they amount to an effort to get over the DMA’s prohibition on the search engine giant’s self-preferring. They claimed that Google has been coming up with new strategies to unfairly compete with their products by abusing its dominance in search.

“The two preliminary findings we adopt today aim to ensure that Alphabet abides by EU rules when it comes to two services widely used by businesses and consumers across the EU, Google Search and Android phones,” said Teresa Ribera, the Commission EVP in charge of competition matters, in a statement regarding the EU’s preliminary findings.

“We take the preliminary view that Alphabet does not effectively allow Android phone users to be informed about or directed to cheaper offers from app developers outside the Google Play store in the first case by favouring its own products on the Google Search results page, which means suppliers and competitors do not benefit from fair ranking practices.” In the second case, we believe Alphabet violates the Digital Markets Act to favour its own products.

“To be clear, our primary goal is to establish a culture of adherence to the Digital Markets Act,” Ribera continued. “Non-compliance procedures are saved for circumstances in which negotiation attempts have failed. However, as usual, we fully respect the parties’ right to defend themselves and apply our rules in a fair and non-discriminatory manner.

We contacted Google to see if, in light of the Commission’s conclusions, it would be altering its business practices in the EU. Our query was not answered by a business spokesperson. She instead referred to a blog post that was published in conjunction with the EU’s publication of preliminary findings of breaches.

According to the company’s blog post, the EU-imposed modifications will harm companies and customers and, in its own words, “hinder innovation.”

Oliver Bethell, Google’s Senior Director of Competition, stated in the post that “the Commission’s findings require us to make even more changes to how we show certain types of Search results, which would make it harder for people to find what they are looking for and reduce traffic to European businesses.”

Additionally, Bethell cautioned that modifications being pushed by EU authorities on Google’s Play Store may expose Europeans to “malware and fraud from bad apps.”

Bethell argues, “The Commission is essentially forcing us to choose between a closed model and an unsafe one if we can’t protect our users from scammy or malicious links that take our users outside of the secure Play environment.”

“In a similar vein, we cannot invest in an open platform that powers billions of phones worldwide, benefiting not just those who can afford to spend 1000 euros on the newest premium model, if we are unable to charge fair fees to support the continued development of Android and the Play services we provide.”

“We will continue to interact with the Commission and abide by its regulations. However, the results of today raise the possibility that Europeans will have an even worse experience,” Bethell continued.

Google will have the opportunity to thoroughly analyse the EU’s conclusions and develop a response for what comes next. Therefore, the investigation’s result is still unknown; if the EU confirms its initial assessment that the IT giant is not following the regulations, there may be a non-compliance judgment (and a hefty punishment). Similarly, the evidence Google presents to support its position may influence the Commission.

Or, in fact, by the political pressure exerted from across the Atlantic on Europe’s rule of law

As Google and Apple are ready to respond to these charges, it is evident that the investigation’s findings might have a big impact on future digital market rules globally as well as how these internet behemoths operate inside the EU.

With possible cross-border repercussions, this most recent move by the European Commission is an important step toward more responsibility in the digital industry. As these innovations take place, companies and consumers alike are left eagerly observing to see how they will affect the digital environment that we all use on a daily basis.