Last week saw Google slapped with a record 4.3 billion euro (RM20.5 billion) anti-trust fine for its handling of Android OS. While it may seem that the company willfully ignored warnings from the European Commission, a new report shows that an offer to “make changes” to the operating system was ignored.
Google had reportedly reached out to the EU in June 2017, shortly after it was slapped with a fine over its shopping and advertising practices. This was also after the EU had started looking into a possible anti-trust action against the company over Android OS.
European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager ignored the offer for talks and simply chose to continue with her own investigations. Vestager claimed that Google had reached out “too late” for anything to be done, and if the company had intentions of changing it would have done so when the first complaint about Android had been filed.
Vestager has gained a reputation as being the scourge of tech giants. Having also ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros (RM62 billion) in back taxes and fined Facebook Inc. 110 million euros (RM524 million).
Google is currently not commenting on the matter, but is likely looking at its options for operating in the EU.
At the moment, it may have to give up the practice of pre-installing apps on phones running Android. Since the EU believes that this action prevents customers from seeking out alternatives. Google may also have to stop using its own search engine as default on Android.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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