Google suffered a failure in the cloud affecting Spotify, Snapchat and Pokémon Go

The European Union fined 4.34 billion euros to Google for considering that it practiced monopolistic practices with Android, the operating system having the most strong penetration in smart devices. According to Brussels, the technology giant requires manufacturers that they pre-install additional applications on their phones and tablets, such as the Chrome browser or Google search, if they want to have access to Google Play (the store " apps "that uses Android).

This was confirmed by Margrethe Vestager, EU Commissioner for Competition at a press conference. However, it is a much lower penalty than the highest forecast, which amounted to 11,000 million dollars (9,380 million euros and representing 10% of its total business turnover) of the sentence imposed by Europe. The company has already reported via Twitter that it would appeal the decision.

Al Verney, spokesperson for the multinational, said that the Google survey on the EU, ongoing since April 2016, revealed that the US firm imposes three types of restrictions "to ensure that the traffic of Android devices goes to the search engine "of the company: the pre-search search services, its browser and some payments to major manufacturers to install their default search engine, time that prevented them from sell smartphones that had alternative versions of Android not approved by Google.

In addition, requires the company to "put an end to their illegal behavior within 90 days" of this decision. "At least Google must stop and not reoffend in any of these three types of practices and also refrain from any action that has a similar or equivalent purpose to these," Vestager said. If technology continues with this model, it could face new fines of up to 5% of the global business figure of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

"It's similar to what happened with Microsoft and its Windows operating system, which required manufacturers to install the Internet Explorer browser on their computers," says Sergio Carrasco. , a digital rights expert at Phase Consulting, Microsoft pleaded for years before concluding an agreement that it should open up its operating system to other applications. "This case with Google as a protagonist may mean the change of model with which the company operates Android, "explains Carrasco, who also notes a" touch of attention "of Brussels to the technology" to make them comply with European regulations. "