Google was hit with a record-breaking $2.7 billion fine last month by the European Commission for breaking antitrust laws. The EU says Google demoted rivals and unfairly promoted its own services in search results related to shopping. While the fine is the largest antitrust judgement ever, an even bigger fine could be on the way for Google.
Reuters reports that EU regulators are considering another record-breaking fine for Google over its Android operating system. The European Commission has been investigating Android after rivals complained that Google has been abusing its market dominance. Google has been accused of limiting access to the Google Play Store unless phone makers also bundle Google search and Chrome apps. Google has also reportedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android, as part of an anti-fragmentation agreement.
While Reuters suggests the potential Android fine could top the $2.7 billion penalty, a bigger concern for Google will be whether it's forced to dramatically alter Android and unbundle key parts. Android has long been considered as open source software, but Google has slowly been adding key components into its Google Play Services software and associated agreements.
Source: The Verge
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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: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @01:34PM (6 children)
Revenue of Googs taken December 31st, 2016: $89.46 billion
- $2.7 billion = 3%
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2, Informative) by cloud.pt on Friday July 07 2017, @01:48PM (5 children)
Don't know if you meant to play it down, but 3% is actually a lot for them investors of an established company (not much potential to grow, so shares move lightly), AND the fact you're comparing revenue, instead of actual profit to a direct expense such as a fine.
A quick wiki search lets me know that, for ~90B revenue, Google actually got ~19.5B net income. That equates to a 2.7B fine being ~14% of net profit. Now imagine another fine like that, or bigger as predicted in this article.
At the end of the day tho, no reason to be worried - it's Google we're talking about after all. How's the apple tax fiasco going btw? Did they start giving back to the EU yet? (I'm an EU citizen, so that was, ironically, me stating I'm not entertained by the situation...)
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @01:50PM (4 children)
don't pull hidden meaning from a math post.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @04:34PM (3 children)
What matters is profit.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @04:45PM (2 children)
100 / (89.46 / 2.7).
I'm pretty sure my math is fine. I find your comment nicely representative of the state of things though in more ways than one. Good job.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @04:57PM (1 child)
Firstly, you've missed the point; revenue is not what is important, but rather profit
Secondly, your arithmetic expression suggests that you have a very strange way of thinking about percentages.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @05:03PM
Oh yeah I'm a big self-taught retard. Check out Eagle Academy in Golden Valley. Now closed, this was where I started pre-alg. Totally fucked me over. Taught by principle because math teacher quit.
In any case you can jump down my throat all you want but my post had a simple goal of expressing proportion that was accomplished and was factual. I'm not sorry that bothers you. Intuitively interpreting and expressing these things has worked for me better than your impotent rage works for you. I guarantee it. :)
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @01:36PM (5 children)
Funny thing, since the last fine, I've started to get Google services on top of my search results. Rarely happened before (only when I was actually searching for Google services).
I wonder if what happened was that Google search previously would show Google services when they were actually the most relevant result, and after the fine, they changed to showing them as ads (with their barely distinguishable color), because some morons complained that Bing wasn't the most relevant search result (nobody wants to find Bing).
(Score: 2, Interesting) by cloud.pt on Friday July 07 2017, @01:52PM
Maybe they're just making the most out of that fine, while they don't get pushed to really stop. No point for that unless the fine would keep escalating.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @03:08PM (3 children)
I haven't seen results for Google services in years ever since I switched to DuckDuckGo as my main search engine. Are users of StartPage/IxQuick [startpage.com] having similar results? There's also Ecosia [ecosia.org]; I did some quick searches there and I didn't get a Google service in those results either.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday July 07 2017, @10:27PM (2 children)
The problem with DuckDuckGo is that it won't give the breadth of results that google.com does.
Any solution?
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday July 08 2017, @01:00AM (1 child)
Only two solutions in the short term:
(1) Keep feeding the monster;
(2) Use an alternative such as DuckDuckGo and accept a smaller breadth of results.
Neither is particularly good. I've gone for (2) since if enough people do likewise google might reform. Eventually.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday July 08 2017, @10:15PM
I've been using DuckDuckGo, and while it does return a smaller number of results than Google, I've found the difference is that Google's results are just pages and pages of useless filler mixed in with actual useful results that DuckDuckGo found. I used to search Google if I couldn't find what I was looking for with DuckDuckGo, but I've stopped that as it's been a while since I've actually found something useful with Google that DuckDuckGo missed. Now if I try that, I'm just reminded why I gave up on Google years ago.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Friday July 07 2017, @02:16PM
The really stupid part here is that they'd be better off not creating an open-source operating system and locking everything down like Apple.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Friday July 07 2017, @02:40PM (1 child)
I understood the previous fine, even if it seemed a bit excessive (shopping comparison services are almost always rackets).
This one, if it happens, seems completely unjustified. Android is (AFAIK) open source. Any company out there is welcome to fork it. If they do, they can include whatever services they want, and attach their own store.
"has also reportedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android"
This is not possible.
The question is access to the Play Store. Google defines two kinds of forks [mobiforge.com]: compatible and non-compatible. If you have a compatible fork, Google can be pretty sure that apps downloaded from the Play Store will actually work.
If you have a "compatible" fork, you then have the option of including Google Play Services on your phones. You don't have to use them, but if you do, you get the lot. Google Play Services are not open source.
"The EU competition enforcer said Google's tactics include requiring smartphone makers to pre-install Google Search and the Google Chrome browser in return for access to other Google apps"
This part of TFA is correct. But, again, it has nothing to do with Android itself. It has to do with not allowing competitors to pick and choose amongst Google apps. That is a very different issue, and one that imho has very little justification.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @03:27PM
Yeah the EU regulators continue to confuse me. Hell I'm still trying to understand why it was okay that the N1 [imgur.com] was supposedly first party and yet had paid app placement in what one would expect to be a clean install. I had to rezip the update apks every update if I wanted to keep facebook and twitter and all that off. Because system apps are impossible to uninstall. That seems screwy competition wise. (Note: assumption N1 was the same in EU)
Whatever, shouldn't be surprised. Same set of regulators that thought the browser ballot would work I bet. Heh.
Personally I don't think Google is collecting any more or less than they were before. Will say fnord is right in that the system services are bigger, more processes and inter dependencies however.
Anyway, you know who could bring some insight into this? Some copyright lawyers. Heheheuhueh
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 08 2017, @03:17PM
If the EU just keeps this money, it sounds like a shake-down of America. The EU is effectively finding an excuse to swipe money from the US.
We ought to return the favor. Send your ideas to congress and your president. Maybe we could fine any EU company with a protected geographic identifier. Maybe we could fine any EU company that fails to choose the most affordable rocket launch provider. Maybe we could fine Airbus over having government support.