European Union (EU) authorities are continuing their pursuit of Google despite changes to the company’s organizational structure under recently formed Alphabet Inc..
In 2014, the EU accused Google of breaking antitrust laws, claiming that the California headquartered tech company was using its dominant 80 percent market share of the Android operating system to market its own services over those of its competitors. Google denied the allegations in a 150-page document saying the charges were “wrong” and “unfounded”.
The not guilty explanation seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as the EU is still pursuing Google’s parent company, Alphabet. There are reports that official charges will be filed soon in Brussels, Belgium, where the EU is based.
The European Commissioner for Competition and EU’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, says, “European Union regulators will actively pursue Google parent Alphabet Inc. on multiple fronts ranging from its contracts with advertisers to its Android mobile operating system.”
Google’s woes are not restricted to Europe. Last month, the Competition Commission of India, accused Google Search of generating biased search results which favored companies which carried paid advertising on google search, as well as marketing its own offerings.
Following an eight month long investigation, Russia recently ordered Google to stop its anti-competitive practices on Android, which involve restrictions and fines posed upon bundled third-party apps. The investigation followed a complaint by Russia’s competing search engine Yandex, which claimed mobile manufacturers weren’t able to include its products on devices that run on the Android mobile OS. The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia has given Google’s until November 18 to loosen its Android policies.
At home, Google is also under fire. The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Telecommunications Commission (FTC) have started investigating allegations of Google using Android to place itself ahead of the competition.
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