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Google confirms it will appeal $5 billion EU antitrust fine
Google has confirmed the expected, that it will indeed appeal the record $5 billion fine that it was handed today by European antitrust regulators for abusing the dominance of its Android operating system.
The European Commission announced that it is fining the U.S. firm for "three types of restrictions that [it] has imposed on Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine." [...] In particular, the EC has decided that Google:
- Has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google's app store (the Play Store);
- Made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app on their devices
- And has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called "Android forks").
The decision also concludes that Google is dominant in the markets for general internet search service, licensable smart mobile operating systems, and app stores for the Android mobile operating system.
In a more detailed blog post, Google doubled down on its position to argue that Android has helped bring choice to the market by enabling 1,300 different companies to develop 24,000 smartphones, and bringing over one million apps to users.
Previously: Report: Feds Investigating if Google's Android Violates Antitrust Rules
EU vs. Google: Android Antitrust
EU's Leaked Plan to Punish Google for Antitrust Violations
Google's Next EU Fine Could be Even Bigger for Android Violations
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 18 2018, @07:01PM
I am the same. Every app has been sideloaded, devices that can get a reflash.
I have been perfectly content with it. And there is a healthy business in sideloading playstore apps, as can be seen by sites archiving old versions of apks.
I stopped gaming on PC over the same issues, online activation and then digital stores for PC games. I've only been playing old titles or open source/freely distributed games since (FYI the entire Earthsiege series including Tribes is freely available on the new owner's website, albeit for ~4 different platforms due to how many OSes the games were developed over. DOS, Win3.1, Win9x, XP.) I have been considering splurging on GOG for a few titles I would like to get, but I don't like having my interests in games tied to a permanent online record attached to my identity. We used to pay cash for a reason. Apparently people have lost their shit and forgotten what some of those reasons are, like that trip to the sex shop, or the anti-establishment bookstore on the 'bad' side of town. If the old or new generations do come to realizations on why those were, it will already be too late for them.