Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Feed Link: https://www.engadget.com/
---

Title: EU fines Google $3.5 billion over adtech antitrust violations

Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2025 18:37:01 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/eu-fines-go...

The European Commission has announced that it will fine Google Γé¼2.95
billion, or around $3.5 billion, for violating European Union antitrust laws
and "distorting competition in the advertising technology industry." The
decision follows a similar ruling from earlier in 2025, where a US federal
judge concluded that Google maintains a monopoly in online advertising
technology.

Google displays ads in search results, but it also has a dominant position as
a software provider for online advertisers and publishers looking to sell ad
space and place ads. The Commission's main issue is with the way Google's ad
buying tools (Google Ads and DV 360) interact with its ad exchange software
(AdX) and ad publisher servers (DFP) in seemingly preferential ways. Google
appears to favor its AdX ad exchange by "informing AdX in advance of the
value of the best bid from competitors which it had to beat to win the
auction," according to the Commission. It also found that "Google Ads was
avoiding competing ad exchanges and mainly placing bids on AdX," maintaining
the dominance of Google's ad exchange even if an alternative is a better
option for advertisers.

The Commission is giving Google 60 days to share how it plans to address
those issues or face an "appropriate remedy" for violating antitrust law.
That could just be the fine, but might also include a forced sale of some or
all of Google's adtech business.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's Global Head of Regulatory Affairs, shared that
the company will appeal the decision in the following statement provided to
Engadget:

"The European Commission's decision about our ad tech services is wrong and
we will appeal. It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will
hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make
money. ThereΓÇÖs nothing anticompetitive in providing services for ad buyers
and sellers, and there are more alternatives to our services than ever
before."

$3.5 billion is a staggering amount of money, but it's not technically the
most Google's been charged for violating EU laws. In 2018, the company was
fined $5.04 billion for forcing mobile network operators to pre-install
Google apps on phones. Though Google has been under an increasing amount of
scrutiny in the last decade for its business practices, it so far hasn't
faced many structural remedies for what has been called anticompetitive
behavior.

For example, a US court found Google was a monopolist in online search in
2024, but a judge recently ruled that the company wouldn't have to sell off
Chrome or stop paying Apple to make Google the iPhone's default search
engine. EU regulators have historically been more persistent than their US
counterparts, and the European Commission is reportedly investigating Google
for at least one other advertising-related issue, but it remains to be seen
if there's any punishment that will actually faze the company.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-
tech/eu-fines-google-35-billion-over-adtech-antitrust-violations-
183701640.html?src=rss

---
VRSS v2.1.180528