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Reuters has obtained a document that shows how the European Union intends to punish Alphabet/Google for antitrust violations:
EU antitrust regulators plan to order Alphabet's Google to stop paying financial incentives to smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search exclusively on their devices and warned the company of a large fine, an EU document showed. The document, running to more than 150 pages, was sent to complainants last week for feedback. Google received a copy in April in which the European Commission accused it of using its dominant Android mobile operating system to shut out rivals.
The EU competition enforcer in its charge sheet, known as a statement of objections, said it planned to tell the U.S. technology giant to halt payments or discounts to mobile phone manufacturers in return for pre-installing Google's Play Store with Google Search.
The regulators also want to prevent Google from forcing smartphone makers to pre-install its proprietary apps if this restricts their ability to use competing operating systems based on Android. Google "cannot punish or threaten" companies for not complying with its conditions, according to the document seen by Reuters.
The Commission's investigation followed a complaint by FairSearch, a lobby group supported by companies that want to ensure they are not disadvantaged by search engine market dominance, in March 2013. Google could face a large fine because the anti-competitive practices, which started from January 2011, are still ongoing, the document said.
Here is the FairSearch website.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 02 2016, @05:13PM
Every time I land on a Bing page, I'm reminded of annoying chimes, hipster ads, and how Microsoft is trying to be cool by bribing hip-hop. Not to mention huge distracting in your face graphics. They are like someone who is annoying just by the attention they crave, and nobody wants to spend time with them for that reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2016, @12:17AM
How much does google pay you to astroturf?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 03 2016, @03:24AM
Glad you think my writing is professional, but that was a freebie.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday October 03 2016, @01:44AM
I take it you don't know how to, or don't care to, control the loading of images in your browser. You apparently use search engines by opening their home pages and typing a query, rather than by using a search feature built into your browser. Perhaps, like around 98 or 99 percent of netizens, you don't know how to, or don't care to, control the execution of Javascript in your browser? Well then, you'll love Google Analytics, the most popular analytics package among Web designers who care about aesthetics. It tracks you invisibly--no garish graphics to bother your sensitive eyes. That data is, I assume, integrated--tastefully and discreetly--with data from Doubleclick, Google Search, Gmail, Chrome [wikipedia.org], Google Play services/Google Mobile Services, etc.
https://web.archive.org/web/20101016010319/http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/10/how-many-users-have-javascript-disabled/ [archive.org]
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms [google.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Mobile_Services [wikipedia.org]