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Brussels hit Google with a record fine of 4.300 million euros for abusing the dominant position in the market that has its Android operating system for mobile phones.
The conclusion of the European Commission is the most important decision It takes a significant share in its eight-year battle against the monopolies it has with the American technology company. The fine far exceeds the collection of 2 400 million euros that Brussels imposed on the company last year for having favored its own site in comparison to searches for commercial sites.
The findings cast a look at a central part of Google's business strategy over the past decade, banning restrictions on its Android operating system, which according to the commission reinforces the dominance of Google in the online searches at a time when consumers spend the use of Android desktops is the operating system used in more than 80% of the smartphones of the world and is essential for the future revenues of the group, as people are increasingly using mobile devices for research services. The Commission concluded that Google has used unlawful "linking" methods to force phone makers to pre-install the Google search app and the Chrome browser as a condition of Google Play's use, the Google Play store. applications for smartphones . It also found that mobile operating networks and device manufacturers were receiving anticompetitive financial incentives if they preinstalled the Google search engine and not other competing services.
Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition, said Google had imposed illegal conditions. Android device manufacturers "to ensure that traffic from Android devices went to the Google search engine."
"In this way, Google used Android as a way to consolidate the domain of its search engine." Vestager These practices prohibited competitors from innovating and competing.
A third of the case concerns contractual restrictions that prevent manufacturers from selling phones using rival operating systems developed with open source Android.
Vestager concluded that the restrictions prevented a more widespread use of the Amazon version, called Fire OS. This type of "bifurcations" of Android can offer a platform for rival search engines to get more traffic, the commission concluded.
Google should end illegal practices within 90 days. The changes will be reviewed by the board to ensure that they meet the concerns of the competition. If the company still does not comply, Brussels may impose coercive fines of up to 5% of the average global business figure of Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Google contends that the Commission did not understand the behavior of the consumer and that it has ill-defined market, excluding Apple as a competitor competitor.
Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, said that the European Commission's decision "rejects the business model that supports Android" and "ignores … the clear evidence"
"We fear that today's decision is detrimental to the balance we're getting with Android, which sends a worrying signal in favor of proprietary systems on open platforms, "wrote in a blog post
Google is appealing the decision of the European Union.
Google also claims that Ivals applications are single-download, which makes it impossible to exclude competitors even when their applications are pre-installed or in phone packs.It represents the conditions of license as minimum requirements to ensure that Android is working properly on different devices.
Vestager said that in the survey of the commission, it was found that in 2016, 95% of all search queries were made by Google search app on devices that had pre-installed them.
On the other hand, this figure drops to 25 percent on devices with Windows operating systems where the Google search engine is not pre-installed.
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