Google Faces $5bn Fine from EU

July 18, 2018 Focus Washington Technology

Google’s Alphabet will receive a $5 billion fine from European Union regulators for breaking antitrust laws.

Google abused the dominant position of its Android mobile operating system which resulted in an investigation being opened three years ago, following a complaint in 2013 from FairSearch, a group which included competitors like Nokia, Microsoft, and Oracle. Google has also allegedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android.

The European Commission has looked closely into the company’s operating system dominance, arguing that Google should try to make competition fairer and allow smaller players in the market to prosper. The fine is expected to be announced later today, but it will likely be around 4.34 billion euros ($5.06 billion), CNBC reports.

Last year, the EU slapped the search engine with a fine of $2.7 billion over manipulated search results, a judgment which Google is still appealing. Namely, Google favored its own site in comparison shopping searches. Other companies including Microsoft and Facebook have faced similar fines from the European Commission.

Even though Android is considered to be open source software, Google has slowly been adding key components into its Google Play Services software and associated agreements.

The EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has concluded that Google illegally tried to force phone makers to pre-install Google services and apps, as a condition of using Google Play. Google also paid anti-competitive financial incentives to those mobile operating networks that pre-installed Google search.

As a result, it has been hit with the record-high fine and is facing years of oversight by the European Commission. It will also be made to stop such illegal practices which could seriously affect its standing on the mobile devices market.

Google denied any wrongdoing, saying that “The commission’s case is based on the idea that Android doesn’t compete with Apple’s iOS,” which is a misunderstanding of consumer behavior.