More trouble for Google: The Financial Times reports that the EU antitrust investigation into Android is nearing completion and the fine is expected to be announced in July. The European Commission is investigating Google’s Android after receiving complaints from competitors that Google is manipulating its dominance in smartphones.
Google has been accused of restricting access to the Google Play Store unless phone makers use Google Search and the Chrome app, a practice that may violate EU antitrust rules.
Google is also said to be preventing phone makers from making devices that run successive versions of Android as part of an anti-fragmentation agreement.
The fine is expected to be announced next month, according to the FT, but the exact amount is not yet known. The EU could fine Google up to $11 billion, or 10% of the annual turnover of Alphabet (Google’s parent company).
It’s unlikely that Google will pay an $11 billion fine, but if it’s just over $2.7 billion, it would set a new record. The company has already been fined $2.7 billion (in 2017) by the European Commission, again for antitrust violations. The EU accused Google of undercutting its rivals and promoting only its own services in search results.
Google’s previous fine didn’t bring any major changes to the company, but the Android case could be very different.
Google has been accused of bundling its search engine with Android, and the European Commission could force the company to make changes to its practices.
Google could learn from Microsoft, which the EU has been monitoring for years to ensure it complies with changes required by law.
Microsoft has had a standoff with the EU that has lasted more than 10 years. Microsoft was accused of bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, and the EU forced it to remove the app so that its competitors could have a chance.
Microsoft initially created a special version of Windows for Europe without the app, but the EU did not stop there. It accused Microsoft of bundling its Internet Explorer browser with Windows and forced the company to display a screen with non-Microsoft browsers in an attempt to improve competition.
The EU changes have helped push alternative browsers like Firefox and Chrome directly into Windows.
If the EU forces Google to make similar changes to Android, it will be a much bigger problem than the fine announced in July. Microsoft, under EU scrutiny, had to think very seriously about its next business decisions. We’ll see next month if the same happens with Google.
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