What Does EU’s $5B Fine On Google For Android Mean?
Author: Michael
Background:
The European Union’s antitrust watchdog, European Competition Commission, says Google took advantage of the popularity of Android, which owns over 85% of smartphone operating system, among other things, to strong-arm makers (not the consumers) of Android smartphones into pre-installing its most popular ‘cash cow’ apps, like Search and Chrome. In total, Android phones come pre-loaded with 11 apps, each of which generates revenue for Google in a different way. YouTube shows ads. Google Drive sells 100 gigabytes of storage for $2 a month. This past May, Google sent a push notification to some users of Google Photos, suggesting that they buy a photobook for Mother’s Day.
However, the EU’s case with Google only looks at the market for “licensable” operating systems for mobile devices. In other words, EU is saying that Google is using its dominance in mobile OS to force actions that allegedly thwarted potential competitors to safeguard its mobile-advertising business.
According to Brussels, How Did Google Break the Law?
According to the EU, Google has used 3 means to kill off competitions.
- Android can be installed by any manufacturer without any Google…