The EU confirmed that the company imposed illegal restrictions on phone makers in order to promote its search engine on mobile devices.
The charge was announced in the year 2018? It included a record-breaking 4.3 billion fine, which the EU's General Court this morning reduced to 4.1 billion. The position of the EU's antitrust advocates has been strengthened because of this confirmation, and it is a blow to Google.
The Play Store had to be pre-installed by phone makers.
The original charge found that the company abused its market dominance by forcing phone makers to restrict how they sold their devices. It was necessary for manufacturers to agree not to sell phones that usedforks not approved by the company, and to pre- install search and chrome on their phones. Phonemakers and mobile operators were paid by Google to install the search engine on their devices.
According to the Commission, the rise of smartphones was seen as a threat to the search business by the company. The tech giant made its search engine front and center on the phones.
The Commission wrongly judged the company to be dominant in the mobile market, and that its actions were necessary to stop the spread of incompatible operating systems, according to the legal reply. The Commission says that fostering rival mobile OSes is exactly the result of a competitive market.
The majority of the charges were upheld by the General Court. The fine was reduced by five percent because the court found that the revenue-sharing schemes did not constitute an abuse of the market power of the company.
Today's decision comes from the EU's second highest court, the General Court, meaning that Google can appeal this decision again with the Court of Justice. It will take two months and ten days for the search engine to be able to appeal again.
The court did not overturn the decision in full. More choice for everyone, not less, and support for thousands of successful businesses is what Android has created.
The statement was added early Wednesday morning.
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