On 5 September 2025 the European Commission announced a €2.95 billion Google adtech fine for breaching EU antitrust rules. The Commission found that Google abused dominant positions in advertising technology by favouring its own ad exchange, AdX, to the detriment of competing adtech providers, advertisers and online publishers, in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
What the Commission found
The Commission concluded that Google is dominant in the European Economic Area market for publisher ad servers, through its DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) service, and in the market for programmatic ad buying tools for the open web, through Google Ads and DV360. Between at least 2014 and the date of the decision, Google favoured AdX in two ways. DFP informed AdX in advance of the value of the best competing bid it had to beat, and Google Ads mainly placed bids on AdX while avoiding competing exchanges.
According to the Commission, this conduct was intended to give AdX a competitive advantage, may have foreclosed rival exchanges, and reinforced both the central role of AdX in the supply chain and Google's ability to charge high fees. The fine was set under the 2006 fining guidelines, taking into account the duration and gravity of the infringement, the relevant EEA turnover of AdX and Google's previous infringements.
Remedies and next steps
Google has been ordered to end the self-preferencing practices and to implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain. It has 60 days to tell the Commission how it intends to do so. The Commission has said its preliminary view is that only a divestment by Google of part of its services would address those conflicts, but it will first assess Google's proposal and, subject to Google's right to be heard, impose an appropriate remedy if the proposal falls short.
The decision follows the formal investigation opened in June 2021 under case AT.40670. The Commission noted that its findings concern conduct largely similar to that examined by the US Department of Justice, whose trial on remedies was set to start on 22 September 2025. Publishers and advertisers that used Google's adtech services in the EEA may also look at the decision when assessing potential damages claims before national courts.
