The European Commission action followed a three-year investigation into allegations that the company’s mobile device strategy had unfairly strengthened its research dominance. The penalty is set to be confirmed at a press conference in Brussels in the afternoon. This will be the largest fine imposed by the regulator against a single company. However, the tech giant Google can challenge the decision. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager had already fined Google 2.4 billion euros for a separate investigation of the shopping comparison service. In addition to this investigation, the team investigating these cases and also has a third ongoing investigation in the company’s ad placement business, AdSense. The European Commission began examining the Android operating system in April 2015 after a complaint from Fairsearch – a trading group that originally included the tech giant Microsoft, Nokia, and Oracle among its members. At that point, Android had a 64% share of the smartphone market in Europe, according to research firm Statcounter. Since then, it has grown to 74%. The tech giant Microsoft, Nokia, and Orange claimed that the company had several procedures that undermined the likelihood of competition from other search engines. The tech giant Google forced mobile and Android tablet makers to make Google as the default search engine as well as having pre-installed Google Chrome to access the Play Store. This practice prevented manufacturers from selling devices with rival operating systems based on the free Android code. In addition, the tech giant Google gave device manufacturers and mobile networks financial incentives to provide their own search service as the only pre-installed option. At the time of the allegations, the tech giant Google, in response, had denied that it required device manufacturers to pre-load any of their applications. In addition, the company also claimed that the distribution of Google Search and the Play Store together made it possible to offer their services for free. “The commission’s approach would mean less innovation, fewer options, less competition, and higher prices.” As we told that the European Commission imposed a fine on Google for 4.34 billion euro for violating EU antitrust rules. Since 2011, the tech giant Google has imposed unlawful restrictions on Android device makers and mobile network operators in order to fasten their dominant position in generic Internet searches. However, the tech giant Google must now effectively terminate this conduct within 90 days or bear a fine that may be up to 5% of the daily average worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. So, what do you think about this? Simply share all your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
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