Google has been fined 4.34billion euros ($5billion), Antitrust rules over Android OS

[Leosghost]

Google has been fined a record €4.34bn ($5bn; £3.9bn) over Android.

The European Commission said the firm had used the mobile operating system to illegally "cement its dominant position" in search.

The firm's parent Alphabet has been given 90 days to change its business practices or face further penalties of up to 5% of its average global daily turnover.

[bbc.co.uk...]

[edited by: engine at 1:41 pm (utc) on Jul 18, 2018]
[edit reason] corrected fines details at member's request [/edit]

[Leosghost]

From the same article

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules," declared Margrethe Vestager, the European Union's Competition Commissioner.

"It has denied other companies the chance to compete on their merits and to innovate, and most importantly it has denied European consumers the benefits of competition, genuine choice and innovation."

Ms Vestager added that the decision could now set a precedent that determines how she handles related complaints about the prominence Google gives to its own maps, flight price results and local business listings within its search tools.

[bbc.com...]

[Leosghost]

Internet reaction to the EU fine on Google.
[bbc.co.uk...]

[lucy24]

2.42bn €, hm, does that mean a couple of low-level Google employees won’t get a Christmas bonus this year?

[Brett_Tabke]

[wsj.com...]
Google Is Fined $5 Billion by EU in Android Antitrust Case

Is this two separate fines? One for Shopping and one for Android?

[MayankParmar]

Expecting a massive AdSense clawback this month.

[engine]

Is this two separate fines? One for Shopping and one for Android

For the record, the E.U. fined Google $2.7 Billion for its comparison shopping service in 27 June 2017 [webmasterworld.com...]

This current fine is 4.3 billion euros ($5bn; £3.8bn) over its Android operating system.

Here's the E.U. commission release [europa.eu...]

Antitrust: Commission fines Google €4.34 billion for illegal practices regarding Android mobile devices to strengthen dominance of Google's search engine

Brussels, 18 July 2018

The European Commission has fined Google €4.34 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules. Since 2011, Google has imposed illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to cement its dominant position in general internet search.

[jmccormac]

Yep , Brett,
Two separate cases.

Regards...jmcc

[yaashul]

It should be noted that EU has another investigation into Google’s business. This is looking at AdSense advert-placing business.

[indianexpress.com...]

[Leosghost]

Indeed two separate fines, my apologies, I caught the BBC article during the night ( when exhausted ) and posted a link to it and the associated articles here..Upon waking today , I heard French radio was saying it was an "android" related fine..I haven't looked at the BBC yet to see if they have corrected their article to one concerning the current android related fine.

Yes the adsense one is the thing that I would imagine will have most here worried, Google are I suspect far more worried about GDPR,( the potential GDPR fines could really hurt them ) hence no "solution" from them.

2.42bn €, hm, does that mean a couple of low-level Google employees won’t get a Christmas bonus this year?

You mean Larry and Sergey, as everyone knows that for years now Google has really been run by Wall st, channelled via Eric.

Expecting a massive AdSense clawback this month.

Made me smile :)

[engine]

The original post is now corrected to the news of today's fines.

[engine]

Google responds: Sundar Pichai pretty much rebuffs the E.U. decision on Android.

We’ve always agreed that with size comes responsibility. A healthy, thriving Android ecosystem is in everyone’s interest, and we’ve shown we’re willing to make changes. But we are concerned that today’s decision will upset the careful balance that we have struck with Android, and that it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms.

[blog.google...]

[azlinda]

How does the EU have the right to fine anyone?

[jmccormac]

Well it is more coherent than the post from Amit Singhal when Google announced the previous findings against Google. This part has me thinking of the cadence in the movie "Full Metal Jacket": "Good for partners, good for consumers". Good for you. Good for me. Could this encourage the US government agencies to reexamine some of the cases against Google that were closed under the previous administration?

Regards...jmcc

[Leosghost]

it sends a troubling signal in favor of proprietary systems over open platforms.

G knows that it sends nothing of the kind..it is not favouring proprietary platforms over open source, it is however saying

1)You cannot call your system "open source" when part of it is not.

2) You cannot strong arm , ( or "offer inducements" to ) or both , the OEM phone producers into incorporating your own non open source parts into the installation when they use the open source parts in order for you to gain massive market share for your OS and your products..forced bundling is not acceptable, it makes the phones android OS neither truly "free" nor truly "open source".

[Leosghost]

This part has me thinking of the cadence in the movie "Full Metal Jacket": "Good for partners, good for consumers". Good for you. Good for me.

Also ( and I think it is where the "full metal jacket" movie lifted the idea from..it is nearly the "Milo speech" in Catch 22 when he explains M&M enterprises, "What's good for M&M ... is good for everyone"..

How does the EU have the right to fine anyone?

Same way as the USA thinks it has the right to fine EU ( or other country's ) businesses / companies that deal with Iran since DT backed out of the Iran deal on a whim..

In fact the EU actually has a strong case..want to do business in the EU..abide by EU law..The EU doesn't care about what Google does with android in the USA, whereas DT thinks that non USA companies should do what he tells them even when it applies to what they do outside of the USA.

Google could just pull out of the EU, meaning search, adwords, adsense etc, and not allow android on phones sold in the EU..But they won't because the EU market is worth waaaaay too much to them..nearly 600 million sets of eyeballs, and with a lot of disposable income, and a lot of interest for adwords advertisers..

[ken_b]

Who gets all the money from the fines and what do they do with it?

[lucy24]

How does the EU have the right to fine anyone?

Er... because they’re a governmental entity?

[Milchan]

How does the EU have the right to fine anyone?

To put simply google has registered offices through the EU so those operations must abide by EU law and therefore can have fines imposed upon them if they are deemed to have broken the laws.

[MayankParmar]

What was the AdSense case all about? Never heard anything about it in detail.

[EditorialGuy]

Who gets all the money from the fines and what do they do with it?

Good question. What happens with other tariffs?

[Leosghost]

Good question. What happens with other tariffs?

@EG...What "other tariffs" these are fines, "tariffs" are customs charges..anyone who is in ecom or import export knows the two things , tariffs and fines ,are not remotely connected..!.
Tariffs are another subject completely..
Fines imposed in by country , be it the USA or a group of countries such as the EU go into "central government funding", and are then distributed as the USA federal govt or the EU sees fit, could be used for blow and hookers in Vegas, or totally wasted.

[lucy24]

or totally wasted

Now, is that the inclusive (vel) or the exclusive (aut) “or”?

[Leosghost]

or totally wasted

Now, is that the inclusive (vel) or the exclusive (aut) “or”?

In the context of what politicians do with government ( our..meaning taxpayers of "wherever" ) money, it could be either, or both.

[lucy24]

Inclusive, then. (a OR b), as opposed to ((a AND NOT b) OR (b AND NOT a)) Although, seriously, what proportion of your average governmental entity's revenues--at any level--comes from fines/penalties as opposed to other categories of assessment? Drop in the bucket.

[mosxu]

In similar fashion I wonder if the appointment of Kavanaough at the US Supreme Court would allow class actions...

You see EU pockets huge fines for big guys abusing their power but where does the money go? How are the real victims going to be compensated?

On the other hand I am already preparing to contribute to that fine...

[Leosghost]

Where do fines for j walking go ? Where do fines for speeding go? Where do fines for drug smuggling go ? Where do fines for people trafficking go ? Where do fines for dieselgate go ? Where do fines for anything go ?
Of what possible relevance is it where the fines go ? unless you are attempting to insinuate that the EU needs 5 billion so badly ( hint..it doesn't as Lucy said this fine is not even a drop in the EU budgetary bucket ) that it "picks on" Google ?

Or are you saying that if Google has to pay a fine that it might affect how much you pay them for adwords , or how much you get back in adsense ? So in that hypothetical case Google ( and anyone else ) should never have to pay fines for illegal actions , in case they decide ( which would be pretty immoral of them ) to claw back the money by ripping off someone else ?

Google broke EU law whilst trading and operating some of their business in the EU, they knew that what they were doing was not allowed ( no body passed special anti-Google laws here and then back dated them ) , laws they have been breaking existed here before Google was even a thought in the heads of Larry and Sergey.

They can either pay the fines, and stop doing the illegal acts, or leave and close up all their EU operations, where the fines go is not relevant at all.

[No5needinput]

@Leosghost - You've been explaining an irrelevant question quite well :-)

[Leosghost]

Ps..All countries "pocket huge fines" imposed against the "big guys", the USA slammed VW with a huge fine, and also some EU banks, China imposes big fines, etc etc..This is not the EU picking on USA companies, this is certain USA ( and other country's companies , including in many cases EU companies ) companies , willingly breaking laws and thinking that they will get away with it because the legal cases will be to complex or that they are too big to take on, or that they can bribe and coerce politicians and legislators to leave them alone to continue breaking the law, or that they have more lawyers and can win by "legal attrition"..or that they can dupe some people into saying the y should be left alone because "where do the fines go" or "I might be out of pocket if the big guys when fined , take it out on me the little guy"..

[Leosghost]

@Leosghost - You've been explaining an irrelevant question quite well :-)

:)
Personally I'd prefer if executives got long jail time instead of their companies and the ultra rich being fined amounts that ( even huge by anyone else's standards ) they can pay from what is to them "small change"..

That would make all of us equal before the law, rather than the position that is current of the little guy goes to jail for something that the big rich guy pays a fine and stays out of jail for..But then in the case of transnational decisions such as these the rich guys would just laugh and avoid travelling to where they had been sentenced to jail time for.

So..fines it has to be..for now..although I'd add jail time for the C-suite too if ever any of them stepped foot in countries where they had been found guilty.