E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case

[Desmond]

Source: E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case

European authorities fined Google a record $5.1 billion on Wednesday for abusing its power in the mobile phone market and ordered the company to alter its practices, in one of the most aggressive regulatory actions against American technology giants and one that may force lasting changes to smartphones.
...
“Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine,” said Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief. “These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere.”

The size of the fine, she added, “reflects the seriousness and the sustained nature” of Google’s actions.

Google said it would appeal the decision, and the case is very likely to drag on for years. The company must deposit the fine in a holding account while the legal process unfolds. If Google ultimately loses an appeal, the money will be distributed among the European Union’s member states.

Regardless of an appeal, if Google does not start altering its mobile phone practices in 90 days, it faces penalties of up to 5 percent of the worldwide average daily revenue of its parent company, Alphabet.

DAE remember Microsoft's anti-trust case around bundling IE with Windows?

 

[whitestar_999]

^^Yes & the creation of the famous(or infamous depending on person) "N" versions of windows.

 

[Desmond]

I know that the N version of Windows are the ones that don't have any media playback capabilities etc. But was there any controversy surrounding them?

 

[whitestar_999]

Well nothing much & they never got popular as N versions don't work well with many games/multimedia applications because of missing features which requires installing media feature pack but then what's the point in using N version in the first place if you are going to install the media feature pack anyway.

 

[Desmond]

Yes, but this case against Google is made around Google forcing all Android OEMs to have Google services even though Android can work without it. Also bundling Chrome with Android which is akin to what Microsoft did with IE in Windows.

 

[whitestar_999]

Google argues that it keeps android costs down resulting in cheaper devices by giving it for free.If google starts charging device manufacturers instead of giving android free with their bundled apps then price of devices will definitely increase.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

People are free to change their search engines. Not sure why EU is making a fuss about it.

 

[whitestar_999]

^^If only enough people in US/Europe/developed nations bothered to do it.Apparently majority of them don't even consider such possibility.

 

[SaiyanGoku]

^^If only enough people in US/Europe/developed nations bothered to do it.Apparently majority of them don't even consider such possibility.

Then EU should educate people and not fine google. This is the same as iphone users "forgetting" to put phones on silent mode in office despite having a hardware button for it.
The reason why google forces OEMs to include gapps is to push consumers to their software services. Apple does it, Sony does it, Amazon does it, Microsoft does it and so on. Would be interesting to see EU fine Apple in 10 digits.

 

[whitestar_999]

Yes but educating people is much harder.

Google forces OEMs to use gapps to compensate for the revenue loss because of giving android for free.Apple does not believe in letting any non-apple device run its iOS & MS charged quite a bit for its windows mobile OS(hence the dominance of android). Apple won't face issues like google & MS because it does not have a monopoly,what it has is popularity of its mobile devices(it cannot restrict current/future development of devices which may surpass its popularity even if chances are low).