Record good for Google: must pay $ 5 billion for monopolistic practices

The European Union sanctioned the company for forcing its search platform on Android devices and expelled the competition with different maneuvers.

Europe has fined Google a record fine of 4,300 million euros (5 billion US dollars) for monopolistic practices around its operating system for Android smartphones . In 2016, the European Commission accused the company of forcing mobile network operators to install Chrome, its search platform and other predetermined applications on most devices sold in Europe. With a market share of more than 80% in many countries, this effectively excluded others from the research services market, creating a monopoly for the Mountain View giant.

€ 4,342,865,000 take into account the duration and seriousness of the offense, "said the European Commission." According to the Commission's 2006 guidelines … the fine has was calculated on the basis of the value of Google's revenue from search advertising services on Android devices in the EEA (European Economic Area). The Commission's decision requires Google to effectively carry out this illegal practice within 90 days of the decision. "

Google has already made it clear that it will appeal ." Android has created more options for everyone, not less. A dynamic ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are the clbadic characteristics of a solid competition. We will appeal the decision of the Commission. "

Strictly speaking, the company committed antitrust violations in three ways, according to the Commission: it required manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and the Chrome browser on Android devices; paid manufacturers and operators mobile on the condition that they exclusively install the Google search application; and prevented the manufacturers from selling devices with Android versions not approved by Google.

For example, Margrethe Vestager , the EU 's competition commissioner, noted that Google prevented a large number of manufacturers from building and selling TVs with Amazon Fire and other FireOS – based devices, a variant of the. Android.

"Google has the right to establish technical requirements to ensure that applications within its own ecosystem run smoothly, but the technical requirements do not can not serve as smoke screen to prevent the development of Android ecosystems likely to compete, "said Vestager at a press conference this morning. "Google can not make its own cake and eat it."

The fine record almost doubles the fine of 2.4 billion euros (2.8 billion US dollars) imposed on Google last year to bring its own purchase results at the top of the search pages. (Google appealed the amount of this fine). The highest figure reflects the fact that research has a much larger impact; even, the EU had the right to tax Google up to 10% of its annual business turnover of $ 110 billion in 2017.

"Google practices have prevented competing search engines from being competitive merit-based, "writes the commission." Binding practices have ensured the pre-installation of Google's search engine and browser on virtually all Google Android devices, and the exclusivity payments have greatly reduced the interest of pre-installing competitive search engines. Google has also hindered the development of other versions of Android, which could have provided a platform for rival search engines to gain traffic. "

Although the fine is a record, it only represents two weeks of annual revenue.More importantly, the EU has also ordered Google to allow phone makers and phones. telecom operators to install applications other than Google on Android devices.This would open Android to more competition, and possibly reduce Google's advertising revenue.

Via: EUCommission, Engadget