The European Union today fined Google roughly $3.5 billion for violating its competition laws, a move that risks escalating tensions with the Trump administration.
The European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation bloc, said Google had breached antitrust laws by using its size and dominance to control the display advertising business, undercutting rivals.
The European Union’s aggressive regulation of the tech industry has been a major source of contention with the United States. Apple, Meta and X have also been the subject of recent investigations. The Trump administration sees the policies as unfairly punitive toward American firms. Last week, President Trump threatened tariffs against countries that targeted American tech companies, without specifically mentioning the European Union.
After the fine against Google was announced on FridayTrump threatened to respond with new penalties. “My Administration will NOT allow these discriminatory actions to stand,” he wrote on social media.
The Trump administration has argued that it is for the United States to regulate the American tech giants. The White House has moved forward with cases started under the Biden administration that target Google and other tech giants over their business practices.
This week, a U.S. federal judge ordered Google to hand over its search results and some data to rival companies in a landmark case aimed at the tech giant’s dominance in online search. The company avoided having to sell off its Chrome browser in that case, which was brought by the Justice Department.
Google’s advertising business is also the subject of another case brought by the Justice Department. In April, a federal judge ruled that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly over some online advertising technologies. A hearing over potential remedies is expected to begin this month.
Regulators in the United States have also brought cases against Amazon, Apple and Meta.
Google is best known for its search engine and other free services, but its multibillion-dollar business is underpinned by dominance of the online advertising market. The company controls nearly every step along the supply chain that businesses — from local retailers to multinational corporations — need to promote their products to internet users.
Besides selling advertising for its own websites and applications, Google also acts as an intermediary between businesses that want to place ads on other websites.
The European Commission said Google had abused its dominance to box out rival providers of advertising technology. Google’s control over ad-tech supply chain allows it to see pricing information that rivals cannot access, regulators said. It can also steer advertising businesses to its own services and avoid those of rivals.
The company, regulators said, has “inherent conflicts of interest along the ad-tech supply chain.”
“Today’s decision shows that Google abused its dominant position in ad tech, harming publishers, advertisers and consumers,” Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s top antitrust regulator, said in a statement.
The commission’s fine of 2.95 billion euros traces back to an investigation started in 2021. Google, which has 60 days to inform regulators about how it plans to comply with the ruling, said it would appeal the decision.
“There’s nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever before,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, global head of regulatory affairs at Google, said in a statement.
In Brussels, the fine against Google became the subject of intense scrutiny after news broke this week that Maros Sefcovic, the bloc’s top trade official, had intervened on Monday to stop the penalty.
Sefcovic pushed back on the idea that he was blocking it. He told reporters during a briefing this week that he and Ribera had been in “regular contact” and that “she is fully aware of my support.”
But the tension underscored a reality: This is a fraught moment in technology regulation.
The European Union’s enforcement of digital regulations came up regularly during trade negotiations between the bloc and the Trump administration. When Sefcovic and his colleagues managed to strike a framework agreement that left out changes to those digital rules, E.U. officials greeted it as a victory.
William Echikson, a tech policy expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis in Brussels, said he was surprised that the European Commission issued such a tough judgment against Google. “I suspected it would want to avoid a confrontation on tech,” said Echikson, who used to work at Google.
He said the ruling could lead Google to have to break up its advertising technology business.
Adam Satariano and Jeanna Smialek are reporters for The New York Times. Copyright 2025, The New York Times.
