Huge Fine Pending for Google - Abuse of power with Android

Published by

teaser

EU antitrust regulators are weighing another record fine against Google, this round over its Android mobile operating system. A ruling can have great consequences. 



Google forces smartphone manufacturers and providers to user Google services including Google Maps and Play Store. Assuming the panel agrees with the initial case team's conclusions, it could pave the way for the European Commission to issue a decision against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google by the end of the year reports Reuters:

The Commission in April last year charged Google with using its dominant Android mobile operating system to shut out rivals following a complaint by lobby group FairSearch, U.S.-based ad-blocking and privacy firm Disconnect Inc, Portuguese apps store Aptoide and Russia's Yandex (YNDX.O).

The move by the EU competition authority, which hit the company with a 2.4 billion euro ($2.7 billion) penalty for unfairly favoring its shopping service last month, could pose a bigger risk for the world's most popular internet search engine because of Android's huge growth potential.

The potential fine is expected to top that 2.4 billion euro penalty. The EU's charge sheet issued to Google in April last year said the anti-competitive practices started from January 2011 and the Commission is likely to tell the company to stop them. They are still ongoing, telecoms industry sources said.

The EU ruling has the scope to do the most damage compared with a third case against Google's AdSense, Richard Windsor, an independent financial analyst who tracks competition among the biggest U.S. and Asian internet and mobile companies, said in a recent note.

"If Google was forced to unbundle Google Play from its other Digital Life services, handset makers and operators would be free to set whatever they like by default potentially triggering a decline in the usage of Google's services," he said, referring to Google's apps store


Share this content
Twitter Facebook Reddit WhatsApp Email Print