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Brussels, Dusseldorf, San Francisco Margrethe Vestager was exceptionally moved: "I love America," the EU's competition commissioner said Wednesday in Brussels. At confession, the Danish was forced, because US President Donald Trump had made his serious allegations. The Brussels "tax lady" hates the United States, "Trump told the President of the European Commission
Jean-Claude Juncker will be welcomed by Donald Trump at the White House next week. the head of the Commission will once again listen to the harsh criticism of his competition commissioner.For the second time in a year Vestager imposed a high antitrust fine on the US giant Google: 4.34 billion euros to pay the Company because it abusively exploits the dominant position of its Android operating system.
This is almost twice as much as last year .There, Vestager fined Google for a fine 2.42 billion euros. "We have policies that help us calculate the penalty. It is the duration of the offense, its seriousness and the business turnover of the company. And then we pack that in our matrix, let's put the lever and – puff! – take out a number, "explained Vestager, explaining how the huge sum arrived.
"Very illegal behavior"
The parent company of Google Alphabet can even face to such draconian punishments. In the first quarter of 2018, the US group made a profit of $ 9.4 billion. Nevertheless, Vestager's recent strike is expected to hit tech giants hard. At the same time, the commissioner also forced Google to stop using Android on its anti-competitive practices. Otherwise threatened with other sensitive fines.
Never before has the EU's Competition Authority acted so harshly against a single company as against Google. It is a "very serious violation, a very illegal behavior," said the Commissioner. Google has been leveraging its market power since 2011 to stay in step with competitors' mobile devices.
More than 80% of smartphones and tablets around the world are equipped with Google's Android system. This dominant position is not in itself an infringement of antitrust law, according to the Commission. But Google has illegally linked mobile phone manufacturers and mobile operators to Android and its apps to eliminate competitors – in three ways.
First, the company requires Android device manufacturers to preinstall the Google search and web browser. Other manufacturers of such applications would therefore have no chance from the outset. Second, Google prevents smartphone and tablet manufacturers from installing operating systems other than Android. Third, Google encourages these manufacturers to offer financial incentives to include only Google apps on their devices.
Google has denied all claims: "Android has increased selection for all, not reduced.A dynamic ecosystem, a high rate of innovation and low prices are clbadic features of strong competition," said Sundar Pichai, president of the company. He announced that he would appeal the Commission's decision
. The main criticism of the Commission is that Google denies that users are linked to pre-installed applications. The choice is wide, easy installation. For example, several browsers have been downloaded hundreds of millions of times – programs that rival Chrome for their own offerings. In addition, device manufacturers are likely to offer smartphones with competing products. It's not so bad that Google apps are pre-installed at the time of smartphone delivery.
The Commission sees this differently and strives to get the statistics: only 1% of smartphone and tablet users would download the search engine application from a Google competitor, only 10% from another browser.
Strategy: The more people use the services of the Internet giant, the more data is collected and the more internal products can be optimized – outperforming competitors. It says over and over again: If nobody stops Google, everything will ultimately be determined by Google.
Many competitors of American society, Commissioner Vestager appears as a savior in the last need. The Danish sentence has imposed broad support in the technology industry in Europe. That Google has been put in the barriers, competition on mobile operating systems and catering applications, like the Fair Search organization, in which companies such as Trip Advisor and Expedia are organized.
"This punishment even hurts Google"
Because Google has used "all the tricks" to delay it, the case has continued for five years, said Thomas Vinje, a Clifford Chance's lawyer and spokesman for the organization. , The company now needs to change behavior in other areas, such as connected TVs.
"This punishment even hurts Google," said Achim Wambach, chairman of the Monopoly Commission, Handelsblatt. He praised the "Vestager crackdown on bundling Android products." Antitrust proceedings thus contribute to "creating an organization system in the Internet world"
The Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) and the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ ) consider non-discriminatory access to platforms such as Android for fair competition. essential. "With this decision, the European Commission continues to establish leading borders in Europe," the badociations said. The BDZV is one of the plaintiffs in Brussels.
Google's competitive behavior has long been noticed – even in Silicon Valley. There was a time in the first decade of the new century when Google and Jeremy Stoppelman were partners. In 2005, the founder of Yelp accepted a collaboration. The restaurant and business reference portal has allowed the search engine operator to access his reviews. In return, Google should increase the popularity of the service. Today, the 40-year-old founder calls the decision "naive".
The Internet giant has long outpaced the San Francisco portal. On Wall Street, Yelp has a market capitalization of 3.3 billion – a fraction of Alphabet, which is valued at 786.7 billion dollars. Google has long been self-badessments for the pub, the nail salon or the pediatrician.
According to Stoppelman, Google deliberately put the competitor in the search results in a worse position. Google, however, refers to the objectivity of their own algorithms. For almost ten years, Stoppelman has been fighting against Google. Yelp has withdrawn from the European market in 2016 after investing millions in it. More than 170 employees had to leave.
Stoppelman hopes that the current decision of the European Commission will benefit his company: "The sanction can undoubtedly have a real effect on the competitors and it has the potential to make a difference, not only in Europe, but everywhere. the world. "He does not want to accept the allegation that he is only defending his business interests in the fight against Google:" Competitive relationships are not fair, customers have no choice. "[19659028] Formerly Microsoft, today Google
Carr & Ferrell's lawyer, Gary Reback, of Menlo Park, continued Microsoft's competition in the 1990s. He persuaded the US Department of Justice to sue the software giant The allegation: Microsoft abuses its monopoly position with the Windows operating system to prefer its own Internet Explorer browser and competitor Netscape's market The US Department of Justice has criticized Microsoft for giving PC makers more freedom to install competing software
The media have called Reback "Bill Gates's worst nightmare" at the time. 39; era. Today, his opponent is called Google. The competition lawyer is disappointed by the actions of the European Commissioner. "Until now, billions of Brussels' fines have not corrected Google's behavior a bit," he says. In 2015, Reback filed a lawsuit against the US company to the European Commission for the disconnection of the US start-up after the application was banned from the Play Store.
Disconnect shows users the data that the smartphone records about them. Reback accuses Google of pushing small businesses out of the market with its market power. Criticism that EU companies are hoping for undue competitive help, rejects Reback. "All prosecutors want is for the EU to enforce the law."
The slowness of the agency gave Google enough time to neutralize its competitors, says Reback. Google has been able to eliminate all its competitors in a few years, given the network effects that make the monopolies faster and harder in the digital economy. "If Google is forced, almost eight years later, to stop its anti-competitive behavior, it's too late for too long," says Reback. "The European Commission must act immediately if it recognizes illegal behavior."
"Google has this sentence:" The competition is just a click away. "But Google has no competitor," says Jonathan Taplin, director emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and author of the book "Move Fast and Break Things". According to the Statcounter web badytics company, over 90% of search queries are broadcast worldwide via the Google platform.
Competitor market shares, such as Microsoft Bing (3.2%) or Yahoo (2%), are minimal. Apps pre-installed on the smartphone would be used much more often. Once a search function is available, it is unlikely that the user will download another application, argues Taplin.
According to the former antitrust lawyer and Internet entrepreneur, the authorities could have prevented Google from developing to such a high level of power – they had stopped the company's many acquisitions since the beginning of the year. IPO in 2004. In 2006, the Youtube group bought in 2013 the Israeli start-up Waze.
"Google already had the best card technology, and we allowed them to buy the company that they could have rivaled," says Taplin. He sees a new "era of regulation" coming to Silicon Valley companies. "I think we'll see more competitive decisions against Google from Europe."
Because unlike Canada and the United States, the European Commission does something. And probably secretly wonders why this is so.
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