Is Google Ringing Search? European Union is among the initial conclusions

The European Commission claims that the original company of Google, the alphabet, has violated the Digital Markets Act. The specific allegation is that Google search and Play Store is self-existence.

The DMA applies to “gatekeepers” organizations, which have a major economic impact in the European Union (at least € 7.5 billion in annual revenue in the European Union for the last three financial years) and more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union, or at least 10,000 annual active business users for at least three financial years.

See: Advocacy Group Apple criticizes European Commission for weak regulation of Google

Search and Play Store practices under Google Investigation

The European Commission has published preliminary findings on the alphabet and how it can prevent competition. Concerns are related to two issues: self-existence in Google Search and “Steering Rules” in Google Play; These issues were seen as part of a non-transportation investigation opened in March 2024.

DMA banns the self-promoter, which occurs when a major platform is in favor of competitors for its own products or services. The Commission believes that the way the alphabet presents the Google search results can extend customers towards Google services, such as shopping, flights or hotels.

Secondly, the Commission argues that Play Store, Google’s mobile app marketplace, apps developers from direct purchasing channels, such as their own website or third-party app store. This limits their ability to offer better deals outside Google’s platform.

Google has made several changes in the last year to follow DMA, such as Temporarily removing some search widget And rebuild the layout of search results, but the Commission has determined that these steps are inadequate.

What are the possible results of the European Union decision?

note that these findings They are initial, and have the opportunity to react to the alphabet in writing; However, if they are confirmed, the commission will adopt a non-non-transport decision as it is now done with Apple, which can lead to fines or other punishment.

Penalty for non -non -non -non -non -non -transportation with DMA can be up to 10% of the company’s total worldwide turnover, increasing frequent violation cases up to 20%.

In a blog post, Senior Director of Google for Competition Oliver Bethel Said that the change that the commission wants, “will hurt European businesses and consumers, hinder innovation, weakens security, and reduce the quality of the product.”