Europe Files Antitrust Complaint Against Google

[snoopdoggydog]

The European Commission has filed a formal antitrust complaint against Google over its mobile operating system Android.

The press release announcing the complaint is available here. Here's a fact sheet.

The Commission is accusing Google of abusing its dominant position to promote its mobile apps over those of its competitors.

"Google [has] pursued an overall strategy on mobile to protect and expand its dominant position," European competition chief Margarethe Vestager said in a press conference on Wednesday morning.

"Google has abused its dominant position." This has, Vestager alleges, "harmed consumers by stifling competition and harming innovation."

Via the press release, the Commission's three key complaints with Android are that Google is:

"requiring manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Google's Chrome browser and requiring them to set Google Search as default search service on their devices, as a condition to license certain Google proprietary apps;

"preventing manufacturers from selling smart mobile devices running on competing operating systems based on the Android open source code;

"giving financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-install Google Search on their devices."

http://www.businessinsider.com/europe-charges-google-with-antitrust-violations-over-android-2016-4

 

[konfab]

This is such BS. Anyone in the world with an internet connection can fork Android and release their own version.

People who do this usually fail as the services people want on their phones are Google's services.