The European Competition Commission is stepping up its efforts to nip Google’s dominance of Android devices in doing deals that give prominence to its own apps like search and maps.
Google generated an estimated US$11 billion (A$14 billion) last year from sales of ads running on Android phones featuring Google apps.
If the EU were to find Google guilty of market abuse, it could lead to a fine of up to US$7.4 billion or 10 percent of its 2015 revenue, while also forcing the US company to change its business practices.
EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said her agency’s probe centres on the use of exclusive contracts which enable phone companies to run Google’s own apps – and not necessarily on demands that they bundle in a complete set of Google apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail, as well as the Google Play app store on phones.
