Pressure is building on the European Commission to conclude its investigation into Google’s search practices under the Digital Markets Act, turning Big Tech regulation into one of the clearest live EU policy stories in Brussels today.
A coalition of European publishers, technology companies and start-up groups has urged the Commission to finish the case rapidly, arguing that continued delay risks weakening both the DMA’s authority and the commercial position of European rivals.
The immediate trigger is a joint letter sent to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, competition chief Teresa Ribera and tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen. According to Reuters, the signatories include the European Publishers Council, the European Magazine Media Association, the European Tech Alliance, EU Travel Tech, the Initiative for Neutral Search, the Innovative Europe Foundation and the German Startup Association. They want Brussels to complete the investigation next week, adopt a formal non-compliance decision against Alphabet and impose a deterrent fine together with a cease-and-desist order.
At the centre of the dispute is the EU’s accusation that Google Search may be giving more favourable treatment to Google’s own specialised services than to competing offers. When the Commission opened formal non-compliance proceedings on 25 March 2024, it said it had concerns that Alphabet was preferencing its own vertical search services, including products such as Google Shopping and Google Hotels, over rival services, contrary to the DMA. The Commission also stated at the time that it aimed to conclude such proceedings within 12 months.
That timetable has now slipped. The case is approaching its second year, despite the Commission having already advanced the process. In March 2025, Brussels sent preliminary findings to Alphabet under the DMA, indicating its provisional view that the company was failing to comply in relation to Google Search and Google Play. In practical terms, that meant the Commission had moved beyond initial scrutiny and was setting out the basis for possible formal sanctions unless Google’s defence or remedial changes altered its assessment.
The business groups pressing for action say the delay is not merely procedural. In their letter, they argue that “the Commission’s credibility is on the line” and warn that each additional day harms European companies competing with Google’s services, with some already under severe financial pressure. Their case is not only about competition law in the abstract; it is also about whether EU digital regulation can produce outcomes quickly enough to matter in fast-moving online markets.
Google rejects the allegation that it is unfairly favouring its own services. The company said on Monday that it had already introduced changes to Search in response to the DMA and the Commission’s concerns, and that those changes amounted to what it described as the biggest downgrade in the product’s history for European users. Google argues that the redesign has created an inferior experience benefiting a narrow set of complainants rather than consumers at large. At the same time, it said it wanted the investigation brought to a close.
For Brussels, the case has significance well beyond Google Search. The Digital Markets Act is the EU’s flagship law aimed at making digital markets fairer and more contestable by constraining the power of designated gatekeepers. If the Commission finds an infringement, it can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a company’s total worldwide turnover, rising to 20 per cent for repeated infringements, and in systematic cases it can impose additional remedies.
The Commission has already shown that the DMA is not intended to remain a declaratory instrument. In April 2025 it found Apple and Meta in breach of the law and fined them €500 million and €200 million respectively. More recently, in January 2026, it opened further specification proceedings to assist Google in complying with DMA obligations concerning interoperability and online search data sharing. That wider enforcement backdrop matters, because it shows the Google search case is being watched as part of a broader test of whether the EU can regulate the structure of digital markets rather than merely react after the fact.
The politics are also unavoidable. EU regulation of major US technology groups has repeatedly generated tension with Washington, and Reuters notes that the latest push on Google comes against the background of wider transatlantic disputes over how far Brussels should go in policing online platforms, search, social media and AI-related market power. Yet from the Commission’s perspective, delay now carries its own risk: if high-profile DMA cases drift, the law may begin to look procedurally heavy but strategically hesitant.
That is why the Google search investigation has become a defining Brussels story. The issue is no longer simply whether Google’s search results satisfy Article 6(5) of the DMA. It is whether the Commission is prepared to convert one of its most ambitious digital laws into timely, enforceable decisions. On that question, the market is now waiting for Brussels rather than Google.
