Google has been fined a record \u20ac4.34bn ($5bn; \u00a33.9bn) over Android.<\/p>\n
The European Commission said the firm\u00a0had used the mobile operating system<\/a>to illegally “cement its dominant position in general internet search”.<\/p>\n The firm’s parent Alphabet has been given 90 days to change its business practices or face further penalties of up to 5% of its average daily turnover.<\/p>\n However, it has said it plans to appeal.<\/p>\n At a press conference in Brussels Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said consumers needed choice.<\/p>\n And she suggested the ruling could lead manufactures to sell smart devices using different versions of the Android operating system to Google’s, such as Amazon’s Fire OS.<\/p>\n “This will change the marketplace,” she said.<\/p>\n Alphabet can easily afford the fine – its cash reserves\u00a0totalled nearly $103bn at the end of March<\/a>.<\/p>\n Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai was pre-briefed about the ruling on Tuesday and has blogged in response.<\/p>\n “Rapid innovation, wide choice, and falling prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition and Android has enabled all of them,”\u00a0he wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Today’s decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less. We intend to appeal.”<\/p>\n Ms Vestager previously fined Google \u20ac2.4bn ($2.8bn; \u00a32.1bn) over a separate probe into its shopping comparison service –\u00a0a ruling the tech firm is in the process of appealing<\/a>\u00a0against.<\/p>\n In addition, her team has a third investigation underway into Google’s advert-placing business AdSense.<\/p>\n Ms Vestager alleges that there are three ways that Google has acted illegally:<\/p>\n Ms Vestager acknowledged that Google’s version of Android does not prevent device owners downloading alternative web browsers or using other search engines.<\/p>\n But she said that only 1% of users downloaded a competing search app and 10% a different browser.<\/p>\n “Once you have it, it is working, very few are curious enough to look for another search app or browser,” she said.<\/p>\n The Competition Commissioner said that Google carried out its abuse at a time when the mobile internet was growing quickly, helping it ensure its advertising-supported search service repeated the success it had already found on desktop computers.<\/p>\n She cannot turn the clock back, but said the size of the fine had been based on the firm’s search-related earnings from Android devices in Europe since 2011.<\/p>\n She has, however, said the firm must now stop all of the practices outlined above and refrain from any measures with a similar goal.<\/p>\n Russia may give one example of how this could be achieved.<\/p>\n After similar complaints by the country’s regulator, Google now offers Android users a choice between Google, Yandex and Mail.ru as the default search engine the first time they use the Chrome browser.<\/p>\n Yandex in particular has benefited from this.<\/p>\n Since the change in June 2017, the Moscow-based firm has seen its share of mobile search rise from about 34% to 46%,\u00a0according to Statcounter<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhat is the case against Google?<\/h2>\n
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What does the regulator want Google to do now?<\/h2>\n
\n\nWhat has the reaction been?<\/h2>\n
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