Google faces record $5 billion EU fine for Android antitrust violations
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17580694/google-android-eu-fine-antitrust
Google will be hit with a record-breaking €4.3 billion ($5 billion) fine by EU regulators for breaking antitrust laws. Bloomberg News reports that the European Commission has settled on a significant fine for Google’s Android app bundling that will be announced around 6AM ET today. The European Commission has accused Google of abusing its Android market dominance by bundling its search engine and Chrome apps into the operating system. Google has also allegedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android.
The potential $5 billion fine dwarfs Google’s previous $2.7 billion record-breaking fine from the EU last year over manipulated search results. Google is still appealing that particular judgment in a back-and-forth that’s expected to last years. Facebook, Intel, and Microsoft have all faced significant anti-competition fines from the European Commission. Microsoft was famously fined twice by the EU, after the software maker failed to include a browser ballot in a Windows 7 update. Apple was also ordered to pay back $15.4 billion in taxes to the European Union.