Google has once again been fined by the EU, this time for a record €4.3bn, over Android. Last year the company was fined €2.4bn for abusing its near-monopoly in online search to give “illegal advantage” to its shopping service. On Wednesday they were once again fined and this time for €4.3bn for abuse of Android’s dominance in mobile operating systems — the biggest EU antitrust penalty to date.
The findings for Google’s latest penalty were grounded in their business strategy over the past decade — the EU commission found they outlawed restrictions on the Android Operating System that resulted in cementing Google’s dominance in online search at a time when consumers were moving from desktop to mobile devices. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
Android is a mobile operating system developed by Google, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android’s operating system is used by more than 80 per cent of the world’s smartphones and it has become increasingly vital to the group’s future earnings as we all become more reliant on our mobile phones.
The EU Commission found Google has been using ‘tying’ methods, which forced mobile phone makers to pre-install Google’s search app and the Chrome browser as condition of using their Google Play, smartphone app store. In addition, they found mobile operating networks and device manufacturers were paid anti-competitive financial incentives if they pre-installed Google search and no other rival services.
A third part of the case has said that there were even contractual restrictions that blocked manufacturers from selling phones using rival operating systems developed on the Android open source code.
The EU’s Competitive Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has said these imposed conditions are illegal and ensured Google’s dominance across Android devices by using its search engine and that these practices have denied an equal and fair chance for others to innovate and compete, such as Amazon’s Fire OS.
Google’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai claims the commission has misunderstood consumer behaviour and wrongly defined the market. They argue that rival apps are only one-download away, making it impossible to completely shut out competitors even when theirs come pre-installed.
Google also stated that they fear this decision will upset the careful balance they have with Android and is a troubling signal in favour of proprietary systems over open platforms.
The lobby group, FairSearch, helped launch the case against Google when they made a formal complaint. They have said the latest fine and order to comply in 90 days should mean that Google will finally cease their anti-competitive practices re. smartphones, and also in other areas — smart TVs, where it is shown they are imposing the same practices.
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