EU charges Google: dominant position with Android

Google is abusing its dominant position. The EU Commission for Competition, Margrethe Vestager does not mince words and points the finger at the American giant: "A year ago – he says – we announced the opening of an investigation on Google and Android, today we can say that its practices they are contrary to European law in terms of free competition ". In fact for Brussels on Google behavior denies consumers a wide selection of apps and services and prevents innovation of the other competitors, in violation of EU rules.

The European Commission has so formalized his accusations after twelve months of investigations by placing targeted "tax" restrictions on the manufacturers of smartphones and tablets and the mobile operators, to which the Mountain View giant requires pre-install its app "such as Google search." According Vestager, Google has "implemented a strategy on mobile devices in order to preserve and strengthen its dominance in the field of Internet search." With the delivery of the 'formal letter of objections' the web giant will defend itself against accusations of the Commission, but if it does not arrive at an agreement, could face a penalty equal to 10% of the annual turnover (74.5 billion in 2015): "the remedy is simple – says the commissioner – Google needs to stop its practices".
Google's reply was not long in coming: "Our agreements with partners are entirely on a voluntary basis – anyone can use Android without Google. Try it – you can download a complete free operating system, modify it as you want and build a phone. And big companies like Amazon do. "

Brussels believes, therefore, that Google "has a dominant position in the market for general search services on the Internet, of the exploitation of the systems already the subject of a license smartphone and online applications for the Android mobile operating system." The search engine will now twelve weeks of time to reply to the allegations of the Commission, it does but already know "look forward to working with Brussels to explain the way the Android model has been designed, adding that he believed that the business model keeps costs low producers and their high flexibility, while giving consumers unprecedented control of their mobile devices. "