The EU is charging Google with antitrust violations

[Peter1469]

The EU is charging Google with antitrust violations

The official announcement should be in about 10 minutes. Around noon in Brussels.

European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will make a statement around noon (6.00 a.m. ET) on Wednesday after the weekly meeting of the EU's executive, the European Commission said.

She is expected to accuse Google Inc of abusing its dominant position in Internet searches following five years of investigation of complaints by competitors.

[Common]

Good screw google, I refuse to use their search engine.

[Mac-7]

This is the future of the Internet.

Governments will tax it, regulate it, and use it to spy on their citizens while censuring what their citizens can read.

[Captain Obvious]

They rightfully charged Microsoft for operating a monopoly over there also.

Hooray for privileged capitalism

[Crepitus]

You had to know it was coming.

I use google for everything. Chrome browser on all devices, gmail, android phone and tablet, I'd hate to have to go back to anything else.

[Peter1469]

I use Startpage, and they have an option to use google for you so you can't be tracked.

[waltky]

EU hits Google with 4.3Bn fine...

Google hit with €4.3bn Android fine from EU
18 July,`18 - Google has been fined a record €4.34bn ($5bn; £3.9bn) over Android.

The European Commission said the firm had used the mobile operating system to illegally "cement its dominant position" in search. The firm's parent Alphabet has been given 90 days to change its business practices or face further penalties of up to 5% of its average global daily turnover. It has said it plans to appeal. However, it could easily afford the fine if required - its cash reserves totalled nearly $103bn at the end of March. At a press conference in Brussels, Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said consumers needed choice.


And she suggested the ruling could lead manufacturers to sell smart devices using different versions of the Android operating system to Google's, such as Amazon's Fire OS, which she said they had been prevented from doing. "This will change the market place," she said. Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai has blogged in response. "Rapid innovation, wide choice, and falling prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition and Android has enabled all of them," he wrote. "Today's decision rejects the business model that supports Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less."


Ms Vestager previously fined Google €2.4bn ($2.8bn; £2.1bn) over a separate probe into its shopping comparison service - a ruling the tech firm is in the process of appealing against. In addition, her team has a third investigation underway into Google's advert-placing business AdSense.


What is the case against Google?