Google has lost its latest battle with European Union regulators. This morning, the EU General Court upheld Google’s record fine for merging Google Search and Chrome with Android. The original decision was made in July 2018 with an attached fine of €4.34 billion, and although this amount has been reduced to €4.125 billion ($4.13 billion), it is still the largest EU fine ever.
The EU disagrees with how Google licenses Android and related Google apps like the Play Store to manufacturers. The Play Store and Google Play Services are needed to build a competitive smartphone, but getting them requires Google to sign a series of contracts that the EU says stifle competition.
The second illegal restriction is the “Anti-Fragmentation Agreement”of the contract, which states that anyone who forks Android, even as a standalone product or under a different brand, will have their company’s Google app license revoked immediately. The third question concerns Google’s revenue-sharing agreements, which give manufacturers that adhere to all of these rules a share of the Google search revenue and Google advertising revenue that the customer generates.
The EU Commission found that “the purpose of all these restrictions was to protect and reinforce Google’s dominance over general search services and therefore Google’s revenue from search advertising.”
Although the appeal was just denied, Google’s solutions to her issues were already rolled out around the time of the original decision. In the EU, Google has taken a page from Microsoft’s book on antitrust compliance, and Android now shows browser and search engine voting results that allow users to choose an option other than Google. Google says it has used Google’s default app ad revenue to fund Android development, and now that those apps don’t have to be included, manufacturers can pay for Android directly instead of getting it for free. If manufacturers don’t merge Google apps, Google will charge up to $40 per phone in the EU. The EU also forced Google to allow partners to fork Android without retribution from the company.
In response to the decision, a Google spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the court did not overturn the decision in its entirety. Android has provided more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world.. “
This is Google’s second major loss in EU courts. The company was also fined €2.4 billion for bundling Google shopping with search and €1.5 billion for bundling search and advertising. In total, Google was fined 8.25 billion euros in the EU.