EU Court of Justice confirms record €4.125 billion fine on Google for Android abuse
Brussels, 02 July 2026
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Summary
The Court of Justice of the European Union has rejected the appeal by Google and its parent company Alphabet against the €4.125 billion antitrust fine imposed by the European Commission in 2018 for abuse of dominant position linked to the Android operating system. It is the highest sanction ever handed down by the EU executive, now final.
Brussels, 02 July 2026
The Court of Justice of the European Union confirmed on Thursday the record €4.125 billion fine imposed on Google by the European Commission in 2018 for having imposed illegal restrictions on smartphone manufacturers and telecom operators through the Android operating system, rejecting the appeals filed by the group and its parent company Alphabet.
With the ruling issued in Luxembourg in case C-738/22 P, the European judges established that the court of first instance made no legal errors in its assessment of the case, thereby rendering final the sanction largely upheld in 2022 by the EU General Court, which had however slightly reduced the original amount.
The European Commission, based in Brussels and responsible for enforcing competition rules in the single market, had imposed the fine in July 2018 accusing Google of having abused its dominant position between 2011 and 2018 through a single and continued commercial strategy linked to Android, the operating system developed by Mountain View and provided free of charge to device manufacturers such as Samsung.
The decision of the Court of Justice
According to the charges, the group had made the granting of Play Store licences conditional on the mandatory pre-installation of a bundle of eleven applications, including the Chrome browser and the Google Search engine, thereby channelling mobile users' internet traffic through its own services. The EU executive also contested an agreement that prevented manufacturers from selling smartphones with alternative, non-Google-approved versions of Android.
The Commission also documented payments made by Google to major hardware manufacturers and telecom operators, conditional on the exclusive installation of Google Search as the default search engine on the devices. A clause that, according to regulators, was aimed at protecting and strengthening the company's dominant position in the search engine sector and, consequently, the related advertising revenues.
The practices contested by the Commission
The EU General Court, at first instance, had sided with the Commission on most of the findings, but reduced the amount from €4.343 to €4.125 billion because it had not identified a violation in the exclusivity payments made directly to large manufacturers and operators, for which Google had not been properly heard.
The Court of Justice has now definitively upheld the decision of the first-instance judges, rendering the sanction enforceable and closing one of the longest antitrust battles waged by the European executive against big tech platforms. A Commission spokesperson recalled that this is the highest fine ever imposed by the institution on a single operator.
Google's position
Google announced that it will still turn in the future to the French Council of State, but for the moment it said it had already adjusted its contractual arrangements in 2018 to comply with the Commission's original decision, allowing other manufacturers to integrate individual services without Chrome and Google Search. The group defended its business model by stressing that Android is offered free of charge to device manufacturers.
In a statement, a Google spokesperson criticised the ruling by stating that the verdict does not recognise the «investimenti significativi» made by the company to keep Android open, interoperable and free, and reiterated the group's commitment to innovation and openness towards users, partners and developers. The group argued in court that the pairing of Google Search and Chrome was necessary to generate revenues that would repay investments in the development of the operating system.
The decision is part of a broader series of European Union measures against the market power of large tech groups. In recent years, the Commission had already imposed a €2.4 billion fine on Google in 2017 for similar violations, upheld by the same Court of Justice in 2024, as well as a sanction for the Shopping price comparison service, subsequently definitively upheld.
The other fines and the Swedish case
Last Monday, a Swedish court had also ordered Google to pay approximately €1.3 billion in damages to Klarna's subsidiary Pricerunner, for having penalised price comparison portals in the results of its search engine. This is a separate decision that adds to the picture of European judicial pressure on the group.
According to Bloomberg, the Court of Justice ruling could pave the way for a new wave of lawsuits from parties who claim to have been harmed by Google's conduct, similar to what has already happened in the United States with class actions against big tech's anticompetitive practices.
From a financial point of view, Alphabet's stock, Google's parent company, showed a slight decline in after-hours trading on Nasdaq, shedding approximately 0.18% to $357.25. Analysts note that the group has so far been able to absorb the fines thanks to its flourishing online advertising business, a segment in which Google maintains a globally leading position.
Financial and market consequences
On the industrial front, the case is intertwined with recent moves in the market for alternative operating systems: in the spring of 2026, Motorola, a long-standing Google partner, announced a collaboration with the developers of GrapheneOS, an alternative operating system based on Android but not controlled by Mountain View, signalling a possible diversification of choices by manufacturers.
The ruling of the Court of Justice is final and legally binding: Google is therefore required to pay the €4.125 billion fine, in addition to any interest accrued, with no further avenues of appeal available in the European legal system.
For the European Commission, the confirmation represents an important victory in its strategy to combat the anticompetitive behaviour of digital platforms, at a time when the Digital Markets Act and other sector-specific regulations are strengthening the enforcement tools available to Brussels.
Implications for the future
Google announced that it will continue to defend its positions in the proceedings still underway in Europe, including those related to online advertising and artificial intelligence applications, where the company is subject to parallel investigations by national competition authorities and the EU executive.
Questions & Answers
Why was Google fined by the EU in the Android case?
The European Commission found that Google abused its dominant position from 2011 to 2018 by imposing illegal restrictions on smartphone manufacturers and telecom operators, tying the Play Store licence to the pre-installation of a bundle of applications including Chrome and Google Search.
What is the final amount of the fine confirmed by the Court of Justice?
The EU Court of Justice confirmed the €4.125 billion fine, reduced by the EU General Court in 2022 from the original amount of €4.343 billion imposed by the Commission in 2018, making the sanction final and binding.
What consequences could the ruling have for Google?
According to Bloomberg, the confirmation of the fine could pave the way for a new wave of lawsuits from parties harmed by Google's conduct, while the group said it intends to continue its defence in the proceedings still open in Europe.
Google record Android 4.125 billion fine confirmed CJEU | allfacts360
