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GOOGLE’S $5 BILLION ANTITRUST FINE
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GOOGLE WAS FINED...
Google was fined with a European Union penalty after being accused of abusing the dominance of its Android devices’ operating system by blocking competitors, which according to EU, are considered illegal practices. The EU antitrust regulators imposed a whopping 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) fine on 18 July 2018 and ordered them to loosen the company’s tight grip on mobile phones. The company is given 90 days to comply; otherwise, they will face additional fines. The European Commission claims that Google is taking advantage of Android to impose their services like Google Search, Chrome, and Play Store on both consumers and device makers.
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ACCORDING TO THE VERGE, THIS GIVES THEM AN UNFAIR AND UNCOMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE BECAUSE OF THREE THINGS: Google required device makers to include search and Chrome to have access to the Play Store and other Google apps and services. Google paid manufacturers and mobile network operators to bundle Google search app on handsets in favour of other search engines
3 THINGS
Google allegedly blocked manufacturers from creating devices that run on an Android fork. Meaning to get Google apps like Play Store and Google Search, manufacturers had to agree not to create or sell devices that ran on forked versions of Android.
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SEARCH ENGINE JOURNAL NOTES Search Engine Journal notes DuckDuckGo’s support for the EU’s efforts to crack down Google’s anti-competitive search behaviour. In a series of tweets, DuckDuckGo listed the ways Google made it difficult to compete citing their anti-competitive search behaviour extends beyond the Android OS. Apparently, when DuckDuckGo updates its Chrome browser extension, the browser shows a message asking the users if they would like to disable the extension and revert their default search settings to Google. This enables Google to maintain their place as the top search engine for users. If this were to change, SEO professionals should start checking their strategies to know whether it is also effective on other search engines other than Google. This is the second time Google was fined by the EU in just over a year. In June 2017, the European Commission also ordered a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) fine for their unfair favouring of their own comparison-shopping service. Google would likely appeal to this ruling. However, even if the appeal results are in their favour, it seems like this is not the end. A third probe which targets restrictive advertising contracts is underway.
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https://anythingseo.wordpress.com/2018/07/25/googles-5-billion-antitrust-fine/
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