Google wants to pay other search engines in Android

Google wants to charge competing search engines when users select them as an alternative when setting up Android devices. The Internet company announced Friday an auction process as a solution to the unfair competition allegation of the European Commission.

The authority had fined Google 4.34 billion euros over the past year because of the business model with the Android operating system. The pre-installed alternative web search of the group was a central critic.

From the beginning of 2020, European users will also be offered three other search engines to choose from when they set up an Android device in addition to Google. Who will be who, will be decided in an auction process with closed offers, explained the Internet group. The four search engines must be randomly placed in the list.

The auctions should take place once a year in each country of the European Economic Region. In their offer, the search engines should name the price that they are willing to pay whenever a user chooses his service. They will then receive a monthly bill from Google and will only have to pay when users choose their service.

"An auction is a fair and objective way to determine which search engines show up at the selection screen," said the Internet company. The search engines could decide for themselves how much they appreciate to be in the list. The selection list should only be displayed on devices that have Google search preloaded.

The European Commission is delighted by Google's reaction by promising competing search engines to pre-install their services on Android devices via contracts with smartphone providers. "It was not possible before," the authority said. At the same time, it was said that the Commission would closely monitor the implementation of the short list and the reactions of other market players to the procedure.