Europe imposes a record fine on Google, which will appeal

The EU imposed Google Wednesday a fine of 4.34 billion euros, this time in the antitrust file Android, a decision that may further deteriorate its relations with the United States and against which the firm will appeal.

This financial penalty, intended to punish the US company for abusing the dominant position of its smartphone operating system, Android, to establish the supremacy of its online search service, pulverizes the previous record, already held by Google.

"Google has used illegal practices to cement its dominant position in Internet research", accused the EU Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, at a conference of press in Brussels.

"Google's search engine is its flagship product, and each year Google generates more than $ 95 billion in revenue from ads shown and clicked Google search users and a large part of its revenue is due to the rise of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, "added the Danish commissioner.

The company had already been condemned by the European Commission, June 27, 2017, to pay a record fine of 2.42 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in online research by promoting its price comparison "Google Shopping" at the expense of competing services.

The amount of the fine is decided at the last moment and can reach theoretically, according to the rules of the European competition, up to 10% of the total turnover of the company which amounted to Alphabet, house Google's mother, to $ 110.9 billion in 2017 (94.7 billion euros).

The European Commission also urged the US company "to end its illegal practices within 90 days, under pe to be subject to penalties of up to 5% of Alphabet's global average daily turnover. "

" Google will appeal the decision of the European executive ", announced immediately a Google's word, Al Verney, in a statement.

This new sanction against the American giant comes in a particularly tense context between the EU and the United States, with whom there is no lack of friction issues as on the NATO or trade

Next Wednesday, in a week to the day, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, must also go to Washington to try to defuse the trade dispute between the EU to US President Donald Trump, ready to tax imports of European cars in his country.

Remedies

The Android antitrust case – operating system used for 80% of devices in Europe and around the world, which is the 'Equival The iOS for the Apple iPhone – has been in the sights of the European Commission for several years

In its statement, the European Commission detailed its complaints against Google. First, the California group has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and its browser (Chrome) as a condition of licensing its online store (Play Store).

Second, it has paid some major manufacturers and some major mobile network operators to pre-install the Google Search app exclusively on their devices.

And thirdly, it has prevented manufacturers wishing to preinstall Google apps from selling only one smart mobile device running on other versions of Android not approved by Google.

In the case antitrust Shopping, Google had proposed remedies in September, still under review by the European Commission.

The Californian group also filed an appeal against the Brussels fine in September 2017 to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), which it did not should not miss to do in the Android folder.

Given the complexity of the business, it would take about two years before a court decision.

In addition to Shopping and Android, the European Commission has a third iron to fire against Google: its advertising practices.

It accuses him since July 14, 2016 to have abused its dominant position with its advertising agency AdSense (80% of the market in Europe) by artificially limiting the possibility for websites third parties to display contextual advertising from competitors. Here too, a fine may be imposed.

The first company in the Sillicon Valley to receive a huge fine in an antitrust case from the European Commission is Microsoft.

In 2004, the computer group had been fined € 497 million for refusing to provide full technical documentation to its competitors so that they could design software fully compatible with the Windows operating system.