EU Imposes $3.5 Billion Fine on Google Over Advertising Technology Practices
September 5, 2025 — By Maria Deutscher, SiliconANGLE
The European Union has levied a substantial antitrust fine against Google, imposing a penalty of €2.95 billion (approximately $3.5 billion) for practices deemed anticompetitive in the digital advertising technology market. This decision marks the culmination of a four-year investigation into Google’s operations related to its advertising cloud applications.
Details of the Investigation and Findings
The European Commission’s probe focused on a suite of cloud-based advertising tools provided by Google to website operators and marketers. These applications facilitate the sale of advertising space by publishers, while advertisers use the platforms to place bids for that ad inventory. EU regulators identified Google as holding a dominant position in two critical segments of the ad technology market.
According to the Commission, Google abused this dominance to advantage its own products unfairly. Key to the concerns was Google’s online auction platform, known as AdX, which processes bids advertisers place for ad space. The highest bid typically wins an auction; however, EU officials found that Google did not route bids to competing auction platforms, effectively favoring its own AdX platform.
Further issues were found with Google Ad Manager, a tool used by website operators to sell advertising space. The investigation concluded that this tool gave Google access to sensitive auction data from rival ad platforms, which Google allegedly exploited to gain an unfair edge in the marketplace.
EU’s Orders Beyond the Fine
In addition to the significant financial penalty, the European Commission has mandated structural and behavioral changes to Google’s business practices. These include requirements to end practices that create conflicts of interest within the ad tech ecosystem. The Commission has tentatively indicated that fulfilling these conditions could necessitate Google divesting parts of its advertising technology business.
Google’s Response and Reactions
Google plans to appeal the decision. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s global head of regulatory affairs, characterized the fine and the proposed remedies as unjustified and expressed concern that the changes would negatively affect thousands of European businesses relying on Google’s advertising platform.
This development has also attracted attention across the Atlantic. Former U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the European ruling on his Truth Social platform, stating that the fine penalizes a leading American company unfairly and threatens American investments and jobs. Trump warned of potential retaliatory measures, including initiating a Section 301 trade investigation to counteract what he termed unfair penalties.
Context Within Broader Legal Challenges
The European ruling coincides with parallel legal battles in the United States. A recent DOJ antitrust trial considered whether Google should be ordered to sell its Chrome browser as a remedy, but the presiding judge rejected that proposal. Additionally, a federal court earlier this year ruled that Google holds an illegal monopoly in parts of the ad tech market encompassing the same Google products the EU targeted. A remedies trial in that case is scheduled to commence later this month.
Implications
This landmark EU fine and accompanying orders highlight increased scrutiny of dominant digital platforms and the complex landscape of online advertising technology. As Google seeks to appeal, the digital advertising ecosystem faces potential shifts affecting advertisers, publishers, and consumers across Europe and beyond.
Image: Google
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