European Union regulators have slapped Alphabet-owned Google with a $5 billion antitrust fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile operating system, which is by far the most popular smartphone OS in the world.
Shares of the search giant fell 0.3 percent on news of the fine, which could have been as high as $11 billion, or 10 percent of Alphabet's annual global revenue, according to EU regulation guidelines. The EU first opened its investigation into Android in 2015, two years after receiving a complaint from FairSearch, which, at the time, included the likes of Microsoft and Nokia.
European officials say that Google's parent company unfairly favored its own services by forcing smartphone makers to pre-install Google apps like Chrome and Search in a bundle with its app store, Play. It also said that Google violated competition rules by sometimes paying phone makers to only pre-install Google search on their devices or sign agreements not to sell phones that run other modified, or "forked," versions of Android.
Google has previously denied these accusations, arguing that phone makers still have plenty of choice and that bundling search and other apps with Play has ultimately allowed it to provide its services for free.
EU fines Google $5 billion over Android antitrust abuse
Shares of the search giant fell 0.3 percent on news of the fine, which could have been as high as $11 billion, or 10 percent of Alphabet's annual global revenue, according to EU regulation guidelines. The EU first opened its investigation into Android in 2015, two years after receiving a complaint from FairSearch, which, at the time, included the likes of Microsoft and Nokia.
European officials say that Google's parent company unfairly favored its own services by forcing smartphone makers to pre-install Google apps like Chrome and Search in a bundle with its app store, Play. It also said that Google violated competition rules by sometimes paying phone makers to only pre-install Google search on their devices or sign agreements not to sell phones that run other modified, or "forked," versions of Android.
Google has previously denied these accusations, arguing that phone makers still have plenty of choice and that bundling search and other apps with Play has ultimately allowed it to provide its services for free.
EU fines Google $5 billion over Android antitrust abuse
