Google fined €2.95B over ad-tech self-preferencing
€3B
≈ $3.5B at the time
European Commission
EU · 2025
Status: Under appeal
What happened
The Commission found that Google abused its dominance across the advertising-technology stack by favouring its own ad exchange (AdX) in both its publisher ad server and its ad-buying tools, a conflict of interest across the chain.
How it affected users
Publishers earned less and advertisers paid more, costs that flow through to consumers, and the open web's ad-funded model was weakened.
Status timeline
Sep 5, 2025
Commission decision: €2.95B fine and an order to end the self-preferencing practices.
Nov 20, 2025
Google brought an action at the EU General Court against the decision. Alphabet says it placed bank guarantees in the fourth quarter of 2025 instead of paying the fine.
Sources
- European Commission press release (IP/25/1992)regulator
- Alphabet 2025 Form 10-K: legal matters (EC ad tech decision appealed in November 2025)company
- Euronews: EU actions on Big Tech in 2025news
Last verified 2026-10-15. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Google fined €2.95B over ad-tech self-preferencing," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2025-09-05. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/google-eu-adtech-2025/