EU cracks down on Google’s search service

The European Commission has concluded that Google’s search service violates the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) by favoring its own products and services at the expense of competitors.

The commission also considers the Google Play app store to be in breach of the DMA, partly because fees are too high and partly because developers are not allowed to steer consumers to other distribution channels.

Oliver Berthell, Google’s competition director, fired back after the decision by writing a post — “EU competition rules hurt consumers and businesses” — on the official blog The Keyword.

Google’s parent company Alphabet now risks fines of up to 10% of its global turnover, equivalent to nearly $35 billion.

EU regulators also hit out at Apple in the second of Wednesday’s two rulings.