Google EU fine looms as Brussels targets search changes

European regulators are preparing a fresh fine against Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) over search self-preferencing. Another active antitrust case arrives as Google pushes AI-generated answers deeper into search. Reuters reported on 25 May that the penalty could run to a high triple-digit million-euro sum, while Brussels is also pressing the company to change how search ranks and displays its own services.

The planned sanction stems from an investigation opened in March 2025, according to Reuters. The case centres on whether Google uses control of search distribution to favour its own shopping, travel and other commercial modules on the page. For publishers and software companies that depend on search referrals, the question has become more immediate because Google is also arguing in court that newer AI features sit inside the same core search product.

The fine is only part of the pressure. The European Commission said in February that it had proposed measures requiring Google to share more search-engine data with third parties under the Digital Markets Act. Brussels is therefore pursuing conduct remedies as well as a cash penalty. Reuters separately reported that DMA sanctions can reach as much as 10 per cent of a company’s global annual revenue, well above the fine now said to be in preparation.

Brussels has also signalled that talks over remedies will not stop it from escalating. In a Reuters-sourced report carrying remarks from Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier, Regnier said:

“Even with our negotiations on future solutions, we will not hesitate to move to the next steps as soon as possible.”

— Thomas Regnier, European Commission spokesperson

The warning fits earlier reporting that Google was already testing changes to its European results pages as the case advanced. Reuters reported in February that the company was preparing those experiments as an EU fine loomed. The dispute now reaches beyond a backward-looking penalty to questions over ranking, rival visibility and the placement of Google’s own modules in Europe.

AI gives the case a fresh edge. Reuters reported in January that Google, defending a lawsuit over AI search summaries, said AI Overviews were not a separate product from its search engine. If Google keeps arguing that point, scrutiny of self-preferencing is likely to follow the AI layer as well, not stop at legacy blue links.

For Australian publishers, advertisers and developers, the European case is not remote.

Australian newsrooms still rely on Google for referral traffic, software vendors buy performance traffic on the same surface, and developers watch closely when AI answers reshape product discovery. When that page changes, the economics can change with it. Brussels is testing how much control a gatekeeper can keep over the web’s main discovery surface as Google rebuilds search around AI-generated answers. A fresh EU fine would not settle the issue, but it would mark a new regulatory milestone for a business model many Australian tech companies still depend on.