Earlier today, the European Commission fined Google (GOOGL) a record $5 billion (€4.34 billion) due to the company’s “illegal practices” in using Android as a means to achieve dominance as a search engine and within the mobile OS market, said Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s antitrust chief.
According to Vestager, Google has up to 90 days to change its business conduct, or else it will face additional penalty payments from the EU. Google quickly responded via Twitter, saying it will appeal the decision.
Source: Google, Twitter
The antitrust fine specifically targets Google’s requirements of Android smartphone manufacturers, such as Samsung, HTC, and Huawei, to install Google Search and a suite of Chrome apps as a precondition to licensing its app store.
Android has captured much of the mobile operating system market for years, beating competing operating systems like Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile. According to data from a Gartner report last year, 86% of smartphones sold worldwide ran on Android. It is important to note that the EU is not fining Google for its overwhelming presence within the mobile OS market, but rather for its use of Android “as a vehicle to cement its dominance as a search engine… [denying] rivals a chance to innovate and to compete,” said Vestager.
This is not the first time that Google has been fined by the European Union. Last year, the EU imposed a $2.7 billion fine on the tech conglomerate for “promoting its own shopping results ahead of competitors.” The language in today’s announcement is strikingly similar to that of last year’s. In the first antitrust case, Vestager stated that Google “denied other companies the change to compete on their merits and to innovate.” The tech firm is still in the process of appealing against the fine.
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