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Google must pay €4.1bn fine for using Android to ‘block’ rivals
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Published
Europe’s top court has ruled Google must pay a €4.1bn (£3.5bn) fine handed down for using its Android mobile operating system to block rivals.
The European Commission had originally handed out a €4.3bn (then £3.9bn) fine in 2018, but this was trimmed to €4.1 bn in 2022. An appeal brought by the tech giant has now been dismissed.
It is the largest penalty the Commission has ever imposed against Google.
A Google spokesperson said the judgement “fails to recognise” the firm’s “significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free”.
“In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers,” they continued.
When the fine was first announced in 2018, it was alleged there were three ways in which Google had acted illegally:
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requiring Android handset and tablet manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and its own web browser Chrome as a condition of allowing them to offer access to its Play app store
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making payments to large manufacturers and mobile network operators that agreed to exclusively pre-install the Google Search app on their devices
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preventing manufacturers from selling any smart devices powered by alternative “forked” versions of Android by threatening to refuse them permission to pre-install its apps
It was acknowledged that Google’s version of Android does not prevent device owners downloading alternative web browsers or using other search engines.
Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai blogged in response, external at the time to the original fine that the decision “rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less.”
This is not the first case brought against Google and its parent company Alphabet by the European Commission.
In September 2024 it ruled Google must pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine handed down for abusing the market dominance of its shopping-comparison service.
Then in September 2025, it fined the search giant €2.95bn (£2.5bn), finding it had breached competition laws by favouring its own products for displaying online ads, to the detriment of rivals.
The fine is not the largest ever imposed on Google, however.
In October 2024 a charge was brought against the firm by a Russian court for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.
The fine was for two undecillion roubles – more than the world’s total GDP.
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Published18 September 2024
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