The European Commission fined Google for a record 4.34 billion euros for illegal restrictions

The European Commission fined Google for a record 4.34 billion euros for "violation of the antimonopoly rules of the EU" and "illegal restrictions".

According to the European Commissioner for Competition, Margret Westager, the company has imposed a number of restrictions on manufacturers of Android devices and network operators in order for the traffic on Android devices to go through the Google search engine. EC claims that Android equipment manufacturers were forced to first install Google services and applications (for example, Chrome browser). In addition, the European Commission believes that the company did not allow manufacturers of devices to use "any alternative version of Android, which was not approved by Google."

“This practice has deprived competitors of the opportunity to introduce innovations and compete. They deprived European consumers with advantages of effective competition in an important mobile sphere,” Vestager added, noting that the size of the fine shows the seriousness of violations of European rules.

- Google will appeal a fine: Android created more, not less opportunities

- European Commissioner: There is no policy in this matter, "I love America"

- The largest fines of world IT corporations

"The commission carefully appreciated Google arguments that these restrictions are necessary to prevent the" fragmentation "of the Android system, and came to the conclusion that they are unfounded. Firstly, Google could ensure that the Android devices using Google's technical requirements, without preventing the appearance of" Forkov "Android. Secondly, Google did not provide any reliable evidence that the “forks” of Android will be affected by technical failures or will not support the applications, ”EC said.

The commission gave Google 90 three months to eliminate violations in doing business in Europe under the threat of an additional fine of 5% of the average daily turnover of the subsidiary of Alphabet.

“Google now has 90 days to refuse and not resume their business practices that abuse the dominant position in the market. Speaking in simple words, Google must stop affecting the choice of a European user,” said the European Commissioner for competition Margrette Westagger.

The company's annual profit in 2017 amounted to 110.85 billion dollars, that is, the size of a new fine will be comparable to the current one.

The European Commissioner Vestager declared a fine assured that there was no policy in this case

The European Commission challenged the presence of a political context in Google.

The record fine of the European Commission (EC) regarding the American company Google is in no way related to the general context of the European Union with the United States.

"The EU will continue to achieve the fulfillment of their competition standards regardless of the political context," said the European Commissioner for competition Margret Westager at a press conference in Brussels. She answered the question of how the decision on the final of the current trade problems in the relations of the EU and the United States is connected, and whether it will cause persecution in the United States against European companies.

“I am a Danish, and we love the United States very much. I really love the United States, culture and much more. But this decision has nothing to do with personal preferences. Nothing. Just like ensuring compliance with legislation in the field of competition, we do it in the real world, and not in a political context. Because the right moment will never come, and we must protect consumers and competition, choice, the best prices, that we and we and we and we and that and we and we are We do, do it earlier and we will do, regardless of the political context, ”she told reporters.

She also commented on the words of US President Donald Trump about herself, presumably spoken by the G7 summit in Canada. Then, according to media reports, Trump, addressing the head of EC Jean-Claude, Junker said: "Your lady in taxes, she hates the United States."

“I will analyze the facts on the first part of this statement. I work with taxes, and I am a woman, everything is 100% right here. As for the second part, this is not true. Because I really love the United States,” RIA Novosti quotes the European Commissioner for competition , RIA Novosti .

Google will appeal the fine of the European Commission

Google said that the European Commission (EC) appears to apply a fine in the company in a record 4.34 billion euros (about $ 5 billion) in the antimonopoly case to promote the original search engine through the Android operating system.

"Android created more, and not less opportunities for everyone. A powerful ecosystem, quick innovations and lower prices are classic signs of healthy competition. We will appeal the decision of the European Commission," said Al Verni spokesman on his blog.

. @Android HAS CREATED MORE CHOICE FOR EVERYONE, Not LESS. #AndroidWorks pic.twitter.com/fawpvnpj2g

- Google Europe (@googleeurope) July 18, 2018

Later, the company published a statement by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who said that the European Commission ignored the features of the Android business model, and its need to pay off after the company’s development of the company invested by Google.

As Pichai said, the built -in applications help Android earn and, if they exclude them from mobile devices, the balance will be disturbed, which will negatively affect both the companies and users. Google CEO noted that all pre -installed applications are not mandatory and users can freely delete them if necessary, TASS reports.

Pichai also drew attention to the fact that the European Commission in its decision ignored the fact of competition of Android devices with phones with Apple iOS operating system. According to him, today, in each price segment, there are more than 24 thousand Android devices of more than 1300 different brands of phone manufacturers. At the same time, most manufacturers can modify the system itself and preserve their applications, added Pichai.

Fines of world IT corporations

On June 27, 2017, the European Commission has already fined Google 2.42 billion euros for abuse of dominant positions in the search engines. The antimonopoly investigation against Google began in April 2015. Then the European Commission had claims related to the Android operating system. The search engine preferred his own Google Shopping service when looking for goods on the Internet.

On August 29, 2016, the European Commission decided to recover 13 billion euros of non -amonated taxes from the American Corporation in favor of Ireland. As EU officials established, the company from 2004 illegally used the tax benefit, leaving taxes in the United States. Appeals against this decision were submitted by both Apple and the authorities of Ireland, who do not want to lose the status of a country with an attractive tax regime for IT companies.

On March 24, 2004, the European Commission fined Microsoft 497 million euros, the operating system developer (OS) Windows for installing a monopoly in the field of OS sales for personal computers and for the supply of Windows with a pre -installed media player. Microsoft paid a fine, but since its share in the OS market remained at the level of 95%, in September 2007 the regulator wrote an additional fine of 280 million euros, and in February 2008 - back 899 million euros (in 2012, the last amount was reduced to 860 million euros). Thus, the total corporation paid 1 billion 637 million euros or $ 2.1 billion.

On May 13, 2009, the European Commission fined 1.06 billion euros ($ 1.19 billion) by the American Intel Corporation. The European Antimonopoly Office found that Intel gave bribes to computers manufacturers to use their processors, and not the competitor chipset - the American company AMD. Currently, appeals in this case are obeyed in the EU court.

Currently, the US Federal Trade Commission is considering a fine that can be assigned to the social network Facebook for violation of personal data safety. It can be about a sum of several billion dollars.