Tech Brief: European Commission Fines Google €4.34 Billion for Android Antitrust Violations
In what's being dubbed Google's "Microsoft moment", the Mountain View-based tech company has been fined 4.3 billion euros (~US$ 5 billion) by European Union antitrust regulators, ordering the search giant to change the way it puts search and web browser apps on Android mobile devices, setting a record for the highest penalty dished out to any company thus far.
The news comes more than an year after the company settled with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service over its practice of mandating Android handset manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and other Google apps in order to gain access to Play Store (Google later rolled out a Chrome update for Android that allowed users to choose between Google, Yandex and Mail.ru), and was fined US$ 2.7 billion by the European Commission for abusing its market dominance in search to favour its own services like Google Shopping over others in search results.
Google has been given 90 days to end its illegal conduct in an effective manner, or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of its parent company Alphabet, the report said.
Update #1: Google has responded saying it wall appeal the antitrust ruling. "Android has created more choice for everyone, not less. A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition. We will appeal the Commission’s decision," it said in a tweet.
Update #2: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on E.U.'s US$ 5 billion fine in a new blog post, saying if the company is prevented from bundling its own apps in an operating system it owns, "it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem." In addition to highlighting how easy it is to remove a preloaded app and replace it with an alternative from Google Play Store, Pichai also cautioned thus: "So far, the Android business model has meant that we haven't had to charge phone makers for our technology, or depend on a tightly controlled distribution model*... But we are concerned that today’s decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms."
*Like Apple, for example.
 |
| How Google is abusing its dominance in Android to favour its services, according to E.U. |
The news comes more than an year after the company settled with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service over its practice of mandating Android handset manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and other Google apps in order to gain access to Play Store (Google later rolled out a Chrome update for Android that allowed users to choose between Google, Yandex and Mail.ru), and was fined US$ 2.7 billion by the European Commission for abusing its market dominance in search to favour its own services like Google Shopping over others in search results.
Google has been given 90 days to end its illegal conduct in an effective manner, or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of its parent company Alphabet, the report said.
Update #1: Google has responded saying it wall appeal the antitrust ruling. "Android has created more choice for everyone, not less. A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition. We will appeal the Commission’s decision," it said in a tweet.
Update #2: Google CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on E.U.'s US$ 5 billion fine in a new blog post, saying if the company is prevented from bundling its own apps in an operating system it owns, "it would upset the balance of the Android ecosystem." In addition to highlighting how easy it is to remove a preloaded app and replace it with an alternative from Google Play Store, Pichai also cautioned thus: "So far, the Android business model has meant that we haven't had to charge phone makers for our technology, or depend on a tightly controlled distribution model*... But we are concerned that today’s decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms."
*Like Apple, for example.
Comments
Post a Comment