Google Fined $5 Billion For Abusing Android Dominance

Google has received a record-breaking fine of €4.3 billion or $5 billion by regulators in the European Union. The European Commission has held that Google has abused the market dominance of Android in three main areas. The company bundles its search engine and Chrome apps into Android, blocks smartphone manufacturers from making devices that run on forked versions of Android, and that it “made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators” in order to bundle the Google search app exclusively on smartphones.

The European Commission now wants to see Google bring its “illegal conduct to an end in an effective manner within 90 days of the decision.” What that means for Google is that it will have to stop compelling OEMs from pre-loading Google and Chrome on handsets in return for access to the Play Store.

It will also have to allow OEMs to run forked versions of Android because Google was not able to prove to the commission that “Android forks would be affected by technical failures or fail to support apps.” Google already stopped its payments for app bundling back in 2014 when the EU first started to look into the matter.

Google is obviously not going to take this without a fight and the company has confirmed its intention to appeal the decision.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Google