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Google has been fined 4.3 billion euros by the European Union and has been ordered to change the way it places search applications and web browsers on Android mobile devices.
The habit of the iPhone in America could end up helping Google, at least with respect to antitrust fines.
The European Commission has now inflicted its two highest fines on Google – the last for $ 5 billion on charges that the technology giant is exploiting the dominant position of its Android operating system in the smartphone market. here in the United States? First, the US smartphone market is quite different from that of Europe, where Android is king, giving regulators more reason to enforce their antitrust rights. About 54 percent of American smartphones operate on the Android operating system, while 45 percent run on Apple's iOS, according to eMarketer.
By contrast, about 80% of smartphones in Europe and around the world run on Android, according to the commission
And EU antitrust regulators have appeared harder than the US on the consolidation of the industry and its effects on competition. The Federal Trade Commission has taken on Google in the past, but with lesser penalties. The FTC imposed its highest fine of $ 22.5 million in 2012 for deploying "cookies" and targeted advertisements on Safari Internet Browser users, a violation of a previous settlement with the FTC [19659008]. has agreed to adapt its business practices in research patents and mobile devices to appease accusations of the agency 's anti – competitive behavior in the search engine market.
Technology companies have, for the most part, avoided antitrust penalties in the United States in recent years Marshall Steinbaum, research director at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank, says the tech giants boast the free services and the cheap devices that they offer.
But the FTC, the Department of Justice and federal judges do not consider it, "he says, and forget how the dominance of the major technological players extends beyond the current devices in the world. The whole ecosystem.
What did the European Commission do? After a three-year investigation, the European Commission has accused Google of unfairly demanding that smartphones and device makers install its Chrome search engine and browser on Android devices to be able to install Google Play Store App. Google offers free phone software to open-source Android software, but generates revenue through advertising displayed in searches and applications and the sale of applications and content.
The commission also said that Google was paying big manufacturers and wireless operators
to make Google's search app the only pre-installed search app and required approval for any device using another version of Android. the chance to innovate and compete on the merits, "said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, responsible for the Commission's competition policy, announcing the fine. "They have deprived European consumers of the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere."
Thomas Vinje, lawyer and spokesman for FairSearch Europe, who filed an initial complaint, is expected to expand consumer choice in the EU with the commission in 2013. "That means Google should stop its anti-competitive practices about smartphones, but also in other areas – smart TVs, in particular – where it prevents competition by using the same practices, "Vinje said in a statement. 19659008] What's going on now?
Google has 90 days to change its practices, but it plans to appeal the decision, which could result in the postponement of the 90-day period.
The company claims that its Android operating system has improved the smartphone ecosystem for consumers, said CEO Sundar Pichai Wednesday in a blog post: "Rapid innovation, the wide choice and lower prices are the petition and Android features allowed everyone, "he said. "Today's decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choices for everyone, not less."
He notes that Android provides a cheaper entry point for the use of mobile Internet, while competing with the Apple operating system. The changes could force Google to consider charging the Android operating system, he said.
Does the European Commission exceed its limits?
It depends on who you ask. Some say Google's punishment by the EU is a retaliation in the growing trade war between the country collection and the United States
This action and other commission investigations on Google, as well as some Other technology companies like Apple, Intel and Facebook, Larry Downes, project director of Georgetown's Center for Business and Public Policy, said: "A preventive strike in the launch of a trade war of information with the United States years ago "
. -a $ 2.72 billion fine for violating antitrust rules with its online purchase service. Fine also: Qualcomm for $ 1.2 billion last year to pay Apple to use its chips and, in 2009, Intel for $ 1.2 billion for anti-competitive practices.
The Commission also claimed tax rebates for Apple, which paid $ 15 billion to Ireland last year, and Amazon, which agreed this year to pay France $ 250 million back tax dollars
The EU case "is the stupidest antitrust law of all time". Berin Szóka, president of TechFreedom, a libertarian think tank in Washington, DC "Of course, Google requires a pre-installation of the research application," he says in a statement. "Remove that and Google will have to start billing – the costs that will be passed on to the consumer in the form of higher phone prices, which will make Android less competitive with Apple."
The EU, Google might be facing the very difficult task of operating a separate business to do business there, says Downes. The US government should take into account Google's difficult situation in the ongoing trade negotiations with the EU, he said. reconsider antitrust for this era of growing technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon.FTC President Joseph Simons, sworn in May, announced a series of hearings to assess the need for laws improved to help the agency better protect consumers and preserve
Simons told a House subcommittee Wednesday that he had spoken to EU Vestager on Tuesday and that the agency was planning to "read what the EU has published very closely."
The US agency is already focusing on Facebook, with a survey to find out if the Cambridge crisis Analytica has resulted in a breach of consumer privacy that violated Facebook's previous consent decree with the agency. "The FTC will be interested in technology platforms, more on the side of consumer protection. consumers than on the competition side ", declared "In the short term, nothing could get the United States to follow the direction of the EU," Steinbaum said. This would require public pressure, new laws and judicial review, and perhaps the "realization that other jurisdictions make antitrust laws different from us and that may work better for them."
] More: The EU slaps Google with a record $ 2.7 million fine for violating the rules of competition
For read more: Back on the 7 years of legal battle of the EU with Google
[19659039] Follow Mike Snider, USA TODAY reporter, on Twitter: @MikeSnider .
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