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BRUSSELS (AP) – European regulators came down on a hard on another US tech giant Wednesday, fining Google has a record $ 5 billion for forcing cellphone makers that use the company's Android operating system to install Google search and browser apps.
The European These are the reasons for which the law does not allow the company to operate.
Google immediately said it will be appealing, and it will be easier to compete with its chief rival, Apple.
Android has "created more choice for everyone, not less," Google CEO Sundar Pichai tweeted .
Google has 90 days to put remedies in place regardless of its appeal Android
The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit group that creates the lightweight ad-blocking browser Firefox Focus, said the ruling gives the opportunity to displace Chrome as the default browser some phones. Huawei to Samsung about that.
The ruling creates "a huge opportunity," Denelle Dixon, Mozilla's chief operating officer, said Wednesday.
It's also possible not much change. Google Search, Chrome and the Play Store are popular with consumers and developers. Handset manufacturers could choose them despite unbundling.
"It's possible for manufacturers to have a newfound freedom of the law," said Thomas Vinje, lead lawyer for FairSearch, the Brussels-based lobbying group backed by Oracle. and others that was the main complainant in the case. "
The fine, which caps a three-year investigation, is the largest ever imposed on a company by the EU for anticompetitive behavior.
The ruling could stoke tensions between Europe and the US, which regulates the tech industry with a lighter hand. Still, some U.S. politicians welcomed it.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut tweeted that the fine should "be a wake-up call" to the Federal Trade Commission and should lead U.S. enforcers to protect consumers.
In its ruling, the EU said it broke the rules
The bundle contains 11 apps, including YouTube, Maps and Gmail, but regulators focused on the Google search, Chrome and the company's app store, called Play Store.
The EU also took issue with Google's payments to wireless carriers and phone makers to pre-install the Google Search app.
It ruled, too, that Google broke the law by forcing manufacturers that took it into account to use Android devices. 19659002] Regardless of the pending appeal, failure to come up with remedies to rectify the behavior after 90 days risks to further penalty of up to $ 15 million a day.
EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that $ 4.34 billion in the size of the company is not disproportionate.
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. "The money is on the back of the world."
The penalty is on 2.42 billion euro fine ($ 2.8 billion).
Neither fine will cripple the company. Google parent Alphabet, made $ 9.4 billion in profit in the first three months of the year and has over $ 100 billion in cash reserves.
"What is important is that Google has to change its abusive behavior," said Rich Stables, CEO of the rival search engine Kelkoo.
Android is technically an open source Google lets cellphone makers use for free. As a result, it is the most widely used system, beating Apple's iOS by a wide margin.
The EU wants to make sure that they are free to pre-install apps of their choosing. It also wants to be able to use Android versions of Android, like Amazon's Fire OS.
Both Amazon and Samsung, maker of the popular Galaxy line of phones, declined to comment on the ruling.
Google argues that they are easy to understand, and that they are compatible with the application of their competitors.
It also argues that not supporting so-called "forked" versions of Android ensures a baseline of experience across some 24,000 different models of Android device. Vestager de la compatible argument a "smokescreen."
European regulators have set the pace in shaping rules for the
The EU has clashed repeatedly with Microsoft of its Internet Explorer browser.
In 2016, the US ruled that $ 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 U.S. presidential election and other campaigns, the EU has begun to enforce the rules
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Nakashima reported from Menlo Park, California. Associated Press Writers Matt O'Brien in Providence, R.I .; Nick Jesdanun in New York; and Michael Liedtke in San Francisco Contributed to this story
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