https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44858238
Google has been fined a record €4.34bn ($5bn; £3.9bn) over Android. The firm’s parent Alphabet has been given 90 days to change its business practices or face further penalties.
The European Commission said the firm had used the mobile operating system to illegally “cement its dominant position in general internet search”.
3 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google confirms it will appeal $5 billion EU antitrust fine
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/18/google-confirms-it-will-appeal-5-billion-eu-antitrust-fine/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage
Google has confirmed the expected, that it will indeed appeal the record $5 billion fine that it was handed today by European antitrust regulators for abusing the dominance of its Android operating system.
The press conference announcing the investigation, which has been eight years in the making, remains ongoing as of writing, but Google has already issued a short statement that confirms its intention to appeal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
With EU Android fine, some see futile effort to curb Google’s dominance; others see first steps to check Google’s data hoovering and guaranteed ad distribution — The tightly knit package of services Google has assembled around its Android smartphone software has supported one of the tech world’s most profitable businesses.
https://t.co/BdenpqIckd
https://www.ft.com/content/8ddd8b86-8aa9-11e8-bf9e-8771d5404543
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Story Behind Google’s Secret Offer to Settle EU’s Android Probe
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-21/banks-freed-from-branches-use-mobile-apps-to-go-after-customers
European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager coolly hit Google with a 4.3 billion-euro ($5 billion) fine last week, the biggest penalty in the history of antitrust enforcement.
It didn’t have to be that way.
A year earlier, when the company — already reeling from a 2.4 billion-euro fine in another EU case — made quiet attempts to settle the probe into deals it has with Android phone makers, the response was equally chilly.
The Silicon Valley search giant had waited at least a year too long to broach the subject of a settlement
Company offered to tweak Android contracts to placate EU
Vestager says the peace offering didn’t come quickly enough
Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., has been one of the EU’s biggest antitrust targets, with three probes, countless headlines and a steady drumbeat of smaller rivals and customers demanding action. The company has now twice failed to strike settlements that would resolve cases into its shopping services and Android that have resulted in a total of 6.7 billion euros in fines — with a looming threat of more still to come.