EU fine Google has record $ 5 billion over mobile practices

BRUSSELS (AP) – European regulators came down on a hard on another US tech giant Wednesday, fining Google has a record $ 5 billion Wednesday for forcing cellphone makers that use the company's Android operating system to install Google search and browser apps.

The European Union said that it was able to reduce the size of a company and to reduce it.

other products.

Google soon said it will be appealing, it will be cheaper and easier to compete with its chief rival, Apple.

, "Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted.

The fine, which caps a three-year investigation, is the biggest ever imposed on a company by the EU for anticompetitive behavior. [19659002] It is likely to stoke tensions between Europe and the US, which regulates the tech industry with a view to the fact that the EU is singling out American companies for punishment.

The bundle contains 11 apps in all, including YouTube, Google Maps and Gmail, but regulators focused on the most popular market share: Google's Search and Chrome apps, and its Play Store app marketplace.

The EU gave Google 90 days to come up with remedies that could allow rival search apps and browsers onto phones.

It ruled, too,

The EU also took a toll with the phone and the payment process. That competition broke out in the United States.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said "companies must compete on their merits,"

Vestager said that the size of the company, the 4.34 billion euro fine is not disproportionate.

The penalty is on top of 2.42 billion euro fine ($ 2.8 billion)

Google's parent company, Alphabet, made $ 9.4 billion in profit in the first three months of the year and is said to have over $ 100 billion in cash reserves.

"The i mportant thing is not to be distracted by the size of the fine. What is important is that Google has changed its abusive behavior, "said Rich Stables, CEO of the Kelkoo rival search engine.

Android is an open-source operating system that Google lets cellphone makers use for free. it's the most widely used system, beating even Apple's iOS.

The EU wants to make sure that it's going to make it easier to use it. Android, like Amazon's Fire OS.

Google argues that the letting companies make their apps could hurt the company's way of making money android.

Giving the phone maker to Android could also hurt Google Samsung, a hugely popular maker of Android phones, could break it. 19659002] Daniel Cast Ro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, has a think tank in Washington, said the ruling "is a blow to innovative, open-source business models."

European regulators have set the pace in shaping rules for the tech

The EU has clashed repeatedly with Microsoft's Internet Browser.

In 2016, the EU ruled that Apple was getting better deal dealership from the Irish government and demanded it pay $ 15 billion in back taxes. The EU has also gotten along with Amazon and Intel

European regulators have likewise taken a harder line on data privacy. After the scandal this spring involving the misuse of Facebook users' personal data during the US presidential election and other campaigns, the EU began enforcing tougher new rules.

The Google crackdown comes at a sensitive time for trans-Atlantic relations, with President Donald Trump lambasting the EU as a "foe" only last week. The United States of America and the United States (19659002) "We have to protect consumers and competition to make them better," Vestager said. "We will continue to do it, no matter the political context."