Google Makes Compromise Over Android To Avoid Further EU Penalties
Google on Tuesday came up with a compromise like move to further avoid more European Union’s mega-fines and said that it would begin charging apps makers. The move came after Brussels accused the US-based tech giant of abusing the dominance of its Android operating system for mobile devices in an illegal manner.
In July, the European Commission levied Google with one of its huge fine by imposing an EUR 4.34 billion (USD5 billion) penalty and gave a total of 90 days to change its illegal practices.
Brussels made the accusation against Google that the company was using the dominance of its Android system over the smartphones and tablets to promote the usage of its own Google search engine and not allow its rivals to run on its platform.
Google responded to the penalty by appealing the decision and argued that the accusations by European Union were without any base, and on Tuesday agreed to comply with the EU’s decision so as to avoid more fines.
“We have confirmed to the European Commission how we will comply with its recent decision on Android,” said Al Verney, a spokesperson for Google in Brussels.
Google said in its blog post by giving details of the move and said that it was ready to change its current practice and smartphone and tablet makers like Samsung or Huawei to come up with non-Android compliant phones in parallel to compliant ones.
Moreover, from now on device manufacturers will now have to pay an unspecified license fee to gain access to Google applications like Gmail or YouTube, that will now be installed separately without dependent on the dominant Google Search App or the Chrome browser.
To satisfy a very important EU demand, those apps will now come unbundled from the Google’s suite of other applications.
Google did not specify the actual numbers of the amount for the license fee that it would levy or whether manufacturers would in turn pass the amount to be paid by the customers.
In a released statement, the EU commission said that it “will closely monitor Google’s compliance to ensure that the remedy is effective and respects the decision.”
Last week, Google argued in an appeal to the EU’s biggest anti-trust fine by saying that Android had “created more choice, not less.”
But, if it so happens, that the company Google fails to ensure compliance from its side with the decision of the Commission, it would be liable pay fines of as much as 5 percent of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
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