Google must pay a €4.1bn (£3.5bn) fine after Europe’s top court dismissed its appeal in a long-running competition case over the Android mobile operating system.
The ruling leaves in place the largest penalty the European Commission has imposed on Google. The Commission originally fined the company €4.3bn in 2018, then worth about £3.9bn, after finding that Android-related agreements had been used to restrict rivals. The amount was reduced to €4.1bn in 2022, and Google’s latest appeal has now been rejected.
The case matters because Android is one of the main pieces of digital infrastructure behind the smartphone market. It is used by many handset and tablet makers, and the terms attached to its apps and services can affect what consumers see first when they set up a device.
Regulators said Google had acted unlawfully in three main ways. The Commission alleged that manufacturers were required to pre-install Google Search and the Chrome browser if they wanted to offer access to the Play app store, which is a key route for downloading apps on Android devices.
It also said Google made payments to major manufacturers and mobile network operators that agreed to pre-install Google Search exclusively. A further finding was that the company prevented manufacturers from selling devices using alternative, “forked” versions of Android by threatening to withhold permission to pre-install Google apps.
The Commission accepted that Android users were not prevented from downloading other browsers or using rival search engines. The case focused instead on the commercial arrangements behind devices before they reached consumers, and whether those arrangements made it harder for competitors to gain visibility.
For households, the practical issue is not an immediate change to phone bills or app access. Google has said it changed its agreements after the Commission’s original 2018 decision. The wider impact is on how default apps, app stores and search services are presented on devices, and on the ability of rival services to compete for users at the point a phone or tablet is first used.
A Google spokesperson said the judgement “fails to recognise” the company’s “significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free”. The company added: “In any event, we adapted our agreements to comply with the initial decision back in 2018 and we remain focused on continued innovation and openness for our users, partners and developers.”
When the Commission first announced the fine in 2018, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai argued that the decision rejected the business model that supported Android. He said at the time that Android had created more choice, not less.
The Android case is one of several major European competition actions involving Google and its parent company Alphabet. In September 2024, the company was ordered to pay a €2.4bn (£2bn) fine linked to the market position of its shopping comparison service.
In September 2025, the Commission also fined Google €2.95bn (£2.5bn) after finding it had breached competition rules by favouring its own products in the display of online advertising, to the disadvantage of rivals.
The Android ruling underlines the continued scrutiny of large technology platforms whose services sit between device makers, app developers, advertisers and consumers. For users, the most visible questions are which apps are installed by default and how easy it is to choose alternatives. For manufacturers and software companies, the decision reinforces the importance of contract terms in shaping access to the mobile market.
