Google is giving unfair prominence to its own apps like search and maps in supplementary software licensing deals it strikes with mobile phone makers running its Android operating system. This is the allegations that is likely to be charged against Google by the European competition commission, reported Reuters quoting sources familiar with the process.
Sales of ads running on Android phones featuring Google apps touched an estimated $11 billion (9.73 billion euros) last year for Google. Running most of the world's smartphones, Android has become the dominant software in recent years.
While forcing Google to change its business practices, it could lead to a fine of up to $7.4 billion or 10 percent of 2015 revenue if the EU were to find Google guilty of market abuse.
The use of exclusive contracts which enable phone firms to run Google's own apps and not necessarily on demands they bundle in a complete set of Google apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail and its Google Play app store on phones is the exact allegations that the EU commission is centering its probe around said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.
According to data from Strategy Analytics, a technology market research firm the vast majority of European phones run a standard package of software and Google apps that must be licensed from Google while Android is an open source software that gives device makers the freedom to build and run their own software.
"Our concern is that by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers. We are looking into the question of tying, but tying in itself is not necessarily a problem," Vestager said at a regulatory conference in Amsterdam in response to a question about whether the EU had narrowed its list of concerns over Android.
"It depends on how it's made but that is part of our investigation, which as I said, is not done yet," she said.
A year ago the EU had started an investigation whether Google was abusing its control over Android and had charged the advertising giant with favoring its own shopping service in Internet searches. A decision on the shopping service case could come later in 2016. Reuters reported that complainants were asked to remove sensitive details from information provided to the Commission before it provides the data to Google for its defense concerning Android since February by the EU watchdog.
Sources also told Reuters that a 24-hour deadline was given by EU to some companies contacted by it to make the changes. This is suggestive that a a charge sheet may be sent within days.
There was no comment from the EU competition office in Brussels. A Google spokesman denied that it forces phone vendors into exclusive contracts and said talks with the EU were continuing, reported Reuters.
"Anyone can use Android with or without Google applications. Hardware manufacturers and carriers can decide how to use Android and consumers have the last word about which apps they want to use," Google spokesman Mark Jansen said in a statement.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Sales of ads running on Android phones featuring Google apps touched an estimated $11 billion (9.73 billion euros) last year for Google. Running most of the world's smartphones, Android has become the dominant software in recent years.
While forcing Google to change its business practices, it could lead to a fine of up to $7.4 billion or 10 percent of 2015 revenue if the EU were to find Google guilty of market abuse.
The use of exclusive contracts which enable phone firms to run Google's own apps and not necessarily on demands they bundle in a complete set of Google apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail and its Google Play app store on phones is the exact allegations that the EU commission is centering its probe around said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.
According to data from Strategy Analytics, a technology market research firm the vast majority of European phones run a standard package of software and Google apps that must be licensed from Google while Android is an open source software that gives device makers the freedom to build and run their own software.
"Our concern is that by requiring phone makers and operators to pre-load a set of Google apps, rather than letting them decide for themselves which apps to load, Google might have cut off one of the main ways that new apps can reach customers. We are looking into the question of tying, but tying in itself is not necessarily a problem," Vestager said at a regulatory conference in Amsterdam in response to a question about whether the EU had narrowed its list of concerns over Android.
"It depends on how it's made but that is part of our investigation, which as I said, is not done yet," she said.
A year ago the EU had started an investigation whether Google was abusing its control over Android and had charged the advertising giant with favoring its own shopping service in Internet searches. A decision on the shopping service case could come later in 2016. Reuters reported that complainants were asked to remove sensitive details from information provided to the Commission before it provides the data to Google for its defense concerning Android since February by the EU watchdog.
Sources also told Reuters that a 24-hour deadline was given by EU to some companies contacted by it to make the changes. This is suggestive that a a charge sheet may be sent within days.
There was no comment from the EU competition office in Brussels. A Google spokesman denied that it forces phone vendors into exclusive contracts and said talks with the EU were continuing, reported Reuters.
"Anyone can use Android with or without Google applications. Hardware manufacturers and carriers can decide how to use Android and consumers have the last word about which apps they want to use," Google spokesman Mark Jansen said in a statement.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
