Google was fined €4.34 billion for breaching anti-trust rules of the European Union for imposing illegal restriction on Android device manufacturers and mobile networks, thereby abusing their dominant position. This ruling comes against the backdrop of a number of cases being instituted counter to Google. While being dominant in the market is not illegal per se, but a duty is accorded to the dominant company to not abuse its position. Google engaged in 3 types of such practices, with the result that they violated the EU law. Firstly, it offers mobile apps and services bundled with the Google Play Store, to manufacturers. These apps come pre-installed, which creates a “status quo bias” and such a tying of the app to the mobile was found to be illegal. Secondly, Google granted significant financial incentives to device manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they pre-installed Google Search across their entire array of Android devices, exclusively. This harmed competition by significantly reducing their incentives to pre-install competing search apps. Lastly, for being able to pre-install Google’s proprietary apps, on their devices, manufacturers had to commit not to develop or sell even a single device running on an alternate version of Android which wasn’t approved by Google.
For more information: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4581_en.htm
Comments