Google offers to change search results amid $3.4 billion EU penalty threat — Here's what we know

US-based big tech firm and search engine giant, Google, has offered to change its ad tech products and search results in efforts to settle the $3.4 billion European Union (EU) penalty threat, reported the news agency Bloomberg on Friday, 14 November 2025

Google has been under the European Commission's view since March 2025 over allegations of favouring its services like Google Shopping, Google Hotels and Google Flights over other competitors.

What changes does Google plan to make?

According to the agency report, Google's parent company, Alphabet, in a blog post on Friday, said that the company will give publishers options to set different minimum prices for bidders on Google’s Ad Manager platform.

The company also seeks to improve the interoperability across its ad tech services in efforts to give the publishers and advertisers more flexibility of choice.

However, despite the offer, the company's stance remains unchanged as it still disagrees with the EU's September decision and the tech giant plans to appeal against it. Meanwhile, the EU antitrust regulator said that Google had allegedly abused its dominance by giving its own ad exchanges a competitive advantage while directing the company to end these practices.

As per a recent Reuters report, citing people aware of the development, this violation of antitrust norms risks a penalty or a fine in the upcoming months.

Google also reportedly mentioned that the company has been looking to find a balanced solution and to close the EU investigations while warning about the risks ahead.

“We remain concerned that any further changes to Search would prioritise the commercial interests of a small set of intermediaries over European businesses who want to sell directly to their customers,” a spokesperson told the news agency.

Level playing field for Google?

EU competition chief Teresa Ribera said that the only level playing field in the industry would be for Google to divest unspecified parts of its ad tech arm after dealing with the penalty and demanding fixes, which have risen due to the alleged antitrust violations.

Even though Ribera’s solution is short of predecessor Margrethe Vestager's radical breakup, the company still eyes this move as a step too far.

2.95 billion euros penalty in Brussels, for alleged abuses of dominance, along with 4.13 billion euro penalty on Android and a 2.42 billion for dominance over shopping search rivals, were among the fines imposed on the tech giant.

Alphabet stock closed 2.84% lower at $278.57 after Thursday's US market session. However, the company's stock was up 0.30% in the after-hours trading at $279.40 on Nasdaq, according to the data collected from MarketWatch website.