Google fined a record $5 billion by the EU for Android antitrust violations

Dave

Dave

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 31, 2008
Messages
104,433
Reaction score
129,996
Location
The sunlit uplands
Google has been hit with a record-breaking €4.3 billion ($5 billion) fine by EU regulators for breaking antitrust laws. The European Commission says Google has abused its Android market dominance by bundling its search engine and Chrome apps into the operating system. Google has also allegedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android, and “made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators” to exclusively bundle the Google Search app on handsets.

The European Commission has been investigating Android more closely over the past year after rivals complained that Google has been abusing its market dominance in software than runs on smartphones.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17580694/google-android-eu-fine-antitrust
 
So does this mean that Apple will also take a hit for accepting a payment to make Google the default search engine for Safari?

What does this mean for apps in a phone OS? This seems like they have opened a can of worms.
 
Emjay said:
So does this mean that Apple will also take a hit for accepting a payment to make Google the default search engine for Safari?

What does this mean for apps in a phone OS? This seems like they have opened a can of worms.
Click to expand...

My opinion would be no, you have the option to go into settings and change it.

C54D364F-ED00-4997-AEE4-6917028B297D.jpeg
 
surface said:
looks to be less than 2 month of profit as per recent trend.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/23/technology/google-earnings/index.html

"Alphabet (GOOGL), the parent company of Google, reported Monday that its profits hit $9.4 billion in the first three months of 2018, up from $5.4 billion a year earlier. "
Click to expand...

It appears there could be a follow up to the initial fine.

The European Commission ordered Google to end the illegal conduct within 90 days or face additional penalties of up to 5 percent of parent Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover.
Click to expand...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-billion-over-android-bloomberg-idUSKBN1K80U8
 
Emjay said:
What does this mean for apps in a phone OS? This seems like they have opened a can of worms.
Click to expand...

These are the 3 things they've been fined for, (not for what apps are on the phone):

The European Commission first began scrutinising Android in April 2015, following a complaint by Fairsearch - a trade group that originally included Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle among its members.
At that point, Android had a 64% share of Europe's handset market, according to research firm Statcounter. It has since grown to 74%.

The commission subsequently made three specific allegations of anti-competitive behaviour, saying Google was:

requiring Android handset and tablet manufacturers to set its search engine as the default and pre-install the Chrome browser before allowing them to offer access to its Play app store

preventing manufacturers from selling mobile devices powered by rival operating systems based on Android's open source code

giving device manufacturers and mobile networks financial incentives to provide its own search service as the sole pre-installed option
Click to expand...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44858238
 
The verge, where the truth doesn't matter and everything click bait.

The problem is Google Play Service not the Browser or default search.
OEMs can also have whatever setup/OS they want on the device but if they want Google Play Service they need to follow Google's rules erm I mean guidelines.

The problem is almost no app work without said service installed.
 
Dave said:
These are the 3 things they've been fined for, (not for what apps are on the phone):



https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-44858238
Click to expand...

Referring to the first charge. This is my train of thought. Android, which is developed by Google, has it's own apps that is pre-installed on the device. Those apps allow Google to make revenue off of them (Chrome, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Play, YouYube, etc). Google derives revenue from the traffic that those apps generate. Now, Apple does the exact same thing with their own version of maps, iTunes, Safari, iBooks, etc). There are a lot of other potential anti-trust cases based on this.

The second and third charges I believe are reasonable, and most in the public would too (except for maybe die hard capitalists). Google should be able to make the hardware that Android OS runs on unique to Andriod OS, but the manufacturer of the hardware should not be limited to stick with only one OS. Users should be prompted to select a search engine upfront when installing a browser or setting up the OS on first boot up.
 
AlphaJohn said:
The verge, where the truth doesn't matter and everything click bait.

The problem is Google Play Service not the Browser or default search.
OEMs can also have whatever setup/OS they want on the device but if they want Google Play Service they need to follow Google's rules erm I mean guidelines.

The problem is almost no app work without said service installed.
Click to expand...

It seems the EU press release says the same thing the Verge does...

European Commission - Press release

Antitrust: Commission fines Google €4.34 billion for illegal practices regarding Android mobile devices to strengthen dominance of Google's search engine

Brussels, 18 July 2018

The European Commission has fined Google €4.34 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Since 2011, Google has imposed illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to cement its dominant position in general internet search.

Google must now bring the conduct effectively to an end within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Today, mobile internet makes up more than half of global internet traffic. It has changed the lives of millions of Europeans. Our case is about three types of restrictions that Google has imposed on Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine. In this way, Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine. These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere.

This is illegal under EU antitrust rules."

In particular, Google:

has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google's app store (the Play Store);

made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app on their devices; and

has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called "Android forks").
Click to expand...

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4581_en.htm
 
Emjay said:
Referring to the first charge. This is my train of thought. Android, which is developed by Google, has it's own apps that is pre-installed on the device. Those apps allow Google to make revenue off of them (Chrome, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Play, YouYube, etc). Google derives revenue from the traffic that those apps generate. Now, Apple does the exact same thing with their own version of maps, iTunes, Safari, iBooks, etc). There are a lot of other potential anti-trust cases based on this.

The second and third charges I believe are reasonable, and most in the public would too (except for maybe die hard capitalists). Google should be able to make the hardware that Android OS runs on unique to Andriod OS, but the manufacturer of the hardware should not be limited to stick with only one OS. Users should be prompted to select a search engine upfront when installing a browser or setting up the OS on first boot up.
Click to expand...

The first charge is similar to when Microsoft got fined for Internet Explorer, in the end they had to do as you describe (an option pop up on first boot to choose).
 
Didn't Microsoft get slapped for this too by the EU?

If I recall Windows used to be bundled together with IE and you were unable to install other browsers with some severe limitations on them. The EU bombed them for a heeefty amount.
 
Dave said:
The first charge is similar to when Microsoft got fined for Internet Explorer, in the end they had to do as you describe (an option pop up on first boot to choose).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I did realise there is a repetition of IE anti-trust cases. It just however seems that the current market leader has a different set of rules applied to it, or has to pay for practices even though other companies use the same tactics.
 
Good.

Now they just need to nail them for not allowing all the crapware that you get on your phone to be removed.

Hangouts, google apps/news/books/games/moveies/music/+

Then they can go after the manufactures for forcing their crapware on us.

Got no issues with phones coming with the stuff on, but give us the option to remove **** we don't use.
 
Dave said:
The first charge is similar to when Microsoft got fined for Internet Explorer, in the end they had to do as you describe (an option pop up on first boot to choose).
Click to expand...

Yip. MS was fined too for IE on Windows. Same for google now...
 
Eniigma said:
Good.

Now they just need to nail them for not allowing all the crapware that you get on your phone to be removed.

Hangouts, google apps/news/books/games/moveies/music/+

Then they can go after the manufactures for forcing their crapware on us.

Got no issues with phones coming with the stuff on, but give us the option to remove **** we don't use.
Click to expand...

My chinese phone arrived with no crapware, I was pretty surprised.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X