Google fined €4.34B over Android licensing restrictions
€4.1B
≈ $4.5B at the time
European Commission
EU · 2018
Status: Reduced
What happened
The Commission ruled that Google required phone makers to pre-install Search and Chrome as a condition of licensing the Play Store, paid manufacturers for exclusivity, and blocked forked versions of Android. It remains the largest antitrust fine the EU has issued.
How it affected users
Search-engine and browser choice was reduced by default on billions of Android devices, entrenching Google's data collection as the out-of-the-box option.
Status timeline
Jul 18, 2018
Original fine of €4.34B imposed.
Effective amount: ≈ $4.7B
Sep 14, 2022
Reduced to €4.125B by the EU General Court.
Effective amount: ≈ $4.5B
Sources
Last verified 2026-07-02. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
Cite this entry
Deepak Gupta, "Google fined €4.34B over Android licensing restrictions," Tech Fines Directory, guptadeepak.com, 2018-07-18. https://guptadeepak.com/tech-fines/violation/google-eu-android-2018/