It brings to an end one of the bloc’s longest-running legal battles with Big Tech, and the ruling comes as Google continues to face mounting regulatory scrutiny across Europe under tougher digital competition rules, including the Digital Markets Act – and follows a series of multi-billion-euro competition cases against the company.
The European Commission first imposed the penalty in 2018, originally setting the fine at €4.34 billion before it was reduced to €4.1 billion by the General Court in 2022.
Google and its parent company Alphabet appealed that decision, but the European Court of Justice has now dismissed the challenge, confirming the reduced fine.
It remains the largest antitrust penalty ever imposed by the European Commission against Google and marks another significant victory for Brussels in its long-running efforts to curb the market power of the world’s biggest technology companies.
A Google spokesperson said: “(The judgement) fails to recognise (our) significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free.”
They added: “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.”
When announcing the original decision in 2018, the European Commission said Google had breached competition rules in three principal ways.
It alleged the company required Android handset and tablet manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and its Chrome web browser as a condition of gaining access to the Google Play Store.
The Commission also said Google made payments to major manufacturers and mobile network operators that agreed to exclusively pre-install Google Search on devices.
In addition, regulators found Google prevented manufacturers from selling devices running alternative, “forked” versions of Android by threatening to withhold permission to pre-install Google’s own apps.
The Commission acknowledged throughout the case consumers remained free to download rival web browsers and use alternative search engines on Android devices.
Responding to the original fine in 2018, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai wrote in a company blog the decision “rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less”.
The Android ruling is one of several major antitrust defeats for Google in Europe.
In September 2024, the European Court of Justice upheld a separate €2.4 billion (£2 billion) fine after finding the company had abused the market dominance of its shopping comparison service.
The European Commission has continued its scrutiny of the company.
In September 2025, it imposed a further €2.95 billion (£2.5 billion) fine after concluding Google had breached competition law by favouring its own online advertising technology products over rivals.
Although the Android penalty is the largest competition fine ever imposed on Google by the European Commission, it is not the largest financial sanction the company has faced globally.
In October 2024, a Russian court ordered Google to pay a symbolic penalty of two undecillion roubles over restrictions placed on Russian state media channels on YouTube – a figure exceeding the value of the global economy.
