EU top court upholds Google's 4.1 billion euro Android antitrust fine in final ruling

The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc’s highest court, dismissed Google and Alphabet’s final appeal on July 2, 2026, upholding a fine of roughly 4.1 billion euros (about $4.7 billion) over anticompetitive practices tied to the Android mobile operating system. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed.

The decision closes a years-long fight over what was the largest antitrust penalty the European Commission had ever imposed. The original 2018 fine punished Google for requiring phone makers to pre-install its Search app and Chrome browser, and to pay for exclusive default placement, in exchange for a license to the Play Store. The General Court had already largely upheld the Commission’s case, trimming the penalty from 4.34 billion euros to about 4.1 billion.

With the appeal in case C-738/22 P dismissed, Google has exhausted its options. The judgment “fails to recognize our significant investment to ensure Android remains open, interoperable and free,” the company said in a statement.

The financial hit is manageable for a company Alphabet’s size, but the precedent is not. The ruling hardens the legal foundation under Europe’s tougher tech rules, including the Digital Markets Act, which now polices much of the same default-placement conduct without years of litigation. It also lands as Google faces separate antitrust pressure over its advertising technology on both sides of the Atlantic.

Whether the Commission leans on the win to press its open cases, or Google adjusts Android licensing terms in Europe further, will show how much the decision reshapes the market rather than just the ledger.