# Google Lost Its Last Chance to Fight a $4.67 Billion (€4.1B) EU Android Antitrust Fine

*Published:* 2026-07-02
*Author:* Farzan Hussain

![](https://bestforandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Google-fined-by-European-Court-of-Justice-for-USD-4.7-billion.jpg)

Google just ran out of appeals. Europe’s top court shut the door on a $4.67 billion Android antitrust fine that’s been dragging through courtrooms since 2018, and this time, there’s nowhere left to go for Alphabet.

**What the original case was actually about**
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Back in 2018, the European Commission accused Google of using Android to box out competition. Phone makers who wanted access to the Play Store had to preinstall Google Search and Chrome too.

Some manufacturers got paid [billions of dollars](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/27/google-paid-26-billion-in-2021-to-become-a-default-search-engine.html) to make Google Search the only search app on their devices. And companies that wanted to build their own forked version of Android got locked out of Google’s app ecosystem entirely.

The Commission called that anticompetitive and fined Google 4.34 billion Euros. A lower court trimmed it to 4.1 billion Euros in 2022. Google kept appealing anyway, and on Thursday, the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, said no more appeals.

The [ruling is now final](https://apnews.com/article/european-commission-eu-google-antitrust-fine-court-a1179334b95da2ba1125beed21bddcfd). There is no next hearing.

**Does this change anything on your phone?**
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Not today, and that’s the part that bugs me a little.

Google already [updated its European agreements](https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/around-the-globe/google-europe/complying-ecs-android-decision/) back in 2018 to comply with the original decision and to stop forcing phone makers to bundle apps like Search and Chrome, so if you’re using an Android phone in the EU right now, this ruling mostly makes something that already happened permanent on paper.

What it does change is the story Google gets to tell about itself. The court specifically rejected Google’s argument that people naturally prefer its apps. Judges pointed to something called status quo bias, the idea that people keep whatever comes preinstalled on their phone instead of going out and downloading a competitor.

That’s a pretty direct shot at how Google built its entire mobile empire.

Google’s response was basically a shrug wrapped in a press statement, saying Android gives people choice and then pointing to its investment in the platform.

What’s interesting is that Alphabet’s shares dipped about one percent before the market even opened, which tells you how much of a surprise this actually was to the actual investors. Yes, you guessed it right. None.

**Why does** this one keep **adding up**
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This $4.67 billion (€4.1 billion) isn’t Google’s only EU antitrust scar. Apart from this Android case, there have been the [Google Shopping fine](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/ro/memo_17_1785) of $2.76 billion (€2.42 billion) from 2017, the [AdSense penalty](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_19_1770) of $1.7 billion (€1.49 billion) from 2019, and the [Adtech investigation](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/it/ip_25_1992) of $3.45 billion (€2.95 billion) from 2025; the company’s cumulative EU fines are inching toward €11 billion.

Yes, a whopping eleven billion Euros.

None of those fines have forced Google to rebuild how it makes money fundamentally. That’s the uncomfortable truth sitting underneath this ruling.

The EU won, again, and Google will write the check, again. Whether that actually reshapes how Android works for the next person buying a phone is a much harder question than the court just answered.