Companies The European Commission condemns Google for 4.3 billion euros

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The European Commission will fined Google $ 4.3 billion ($ 5 billion) for its monopolistic practices in the marketplace. mobile operating systems, said Bloomberg. Officially, it must be announced at a press conference that starts at 14 hours. Bulgarian Time

The specific reason for the fine is the Android operating system, used by almost all smartphone manufacturers in the world except Apple. Android is developed by Google and is free for any industry companies who want to use it. The prerequisite is that all phones have Google's indelible software, making it a monopoly on the market

Preinstalled software includes YouTube apps, emails, mobile maps, streaming music, cloud services,, Internet browser, etc. But the main problem is Google's own search engine

Reuters reports that the European Commissioner for Competition, Margarete Vestegger, has contacted Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, before the official announcement of a fine a. The penalty is a fact only a year after Google received another Google Commission boost of $ 2.8 billion due to Google's positioning on its competitors when consumers buy via the search engine

Commissioner European competition Margrette Vestegger has contacted the CEO of Google Sundar Pichai before the official announcement of the fine [Reuters]

CE against the giants of technology

The new strike against Google is part of a larger giants of technology. In 2016, Apple was also fined for non-payment of taxes in Ireland, although Ireland itself did not want to be fined. The European Union also has problems with Amazon, which was fined 250 million euros in 2017, again for taxes. Another giant Facebook also faces difficulties in Europe. CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke to the European Parliament in May about personal data, but nothing serious came from the meeting.

Google's objection to the current case is that the company is not a monopoly because consumers are free to download other software and not to use l & # 39; company. From the point of view of the user, a directly installed software can be considered as a plus, because all the phones are ready to work. The case resembles the dispute over Microsoft's monopoly situation in the 1990s when the company was accused of being in the same because of its internet browser Internet Explorer . Google points out that a complete comparison can not be made because the Internet speeds are now much faster and the software change is free and at this time

Displacement potential

The fine terminates the European Commission's investigation into Google's contracts with smartphone manufacturers. In the long run, more important than the fine itself, there may be a possible UK regulation that Android phones do not come with pre-installed Google software. This will open up the opportunity for app developers to take advantage of the more open market, but it is likely to make the giant find another way to make money from Android – most likely in making the farm system paid to builders

In 2016, Google held a market share of over 90% in the areas of joint Internet research, mobile operating systems under Android license and app stores, then the European Commission announced