EU top court upholds €4.1B antitrust fine against Google for Android abuse of dominance

The European Court of Justice has upheld a record €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) antitrust fine against Google for abusing the dominant position of its Android operating system. The fine was originally imposed by the European Commission in 2018 at €4.34 billion, then reduced to €4.125 billion by the EU's General Court in 2022. Google appealed the 2022 ruling, which the top court confirmed on July 2, 2026.

The Commission accused Google of pressuring device makers using Android to pre-install its search engine and Google Chrome browser, effectively shutting out rivals and restricting competition. This ruling is the highest antitrust penalty ever imposed by the EU on any company. Google has been hit with multiple EU fines totaling over €8 billion since 2017 across three separate antitrust cases—including the Android case, a Google Shopping case, and practices related to Google AdSense.

For practitioners building on non-dominant platforms or deploying distribution strategies, this establishes that the EU will enforce dominance-abuse findings through multiple levels of court review and hold them in place for years. The Digital Markets Act (DMA), enacted after these cases, gives the EU faster mechanisms to police tech giants without waiting for lengthy investigations. Google faces further probes under the DMA and pending decisions on other competition cases.