Read EC's own press release instead:
EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
21–30 of 121 posts
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#22What about Apple?
What about them? I don't think you understand the factors that are required for antitrust consideration. Android is like 80% of the market in Europe- you really think Apple is at all in the same foothold there?
Note that criteria for anti trust action differ between EU and US. In EU market share isn't the only defining factor.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#23Totally implausible scenario, but what would happen if Google were to say "to hell with this" and just completely pull out of the EU? Like full-stop, nothing Google touching the EU. Would there be riots? Would governments try to force Google back? Like, are they so essential to digital life that a complete withdrawal would cause some amount of chaos? And if that's the case, isn't an antitrust suit a bit disingenuous?…
All the Google services would be replaced by (at first lower quality) European versions. This would create a huge investment and tech sector growth wave. One of the best things to happen to the European tech scene since the beginning of the Internet. You can see this happening in Russia, China and India although for different reasons. Even if this case doesn't change anything I think we will see Google's involvement…
All? At first, lower quality?
I think you massively underestimate how much investment is required to produce even a basic search engine, let alone one that eventually catches up to what Google has produced. And that's just search. Now throw in Gmail, Maps, Android, Chrome, etc ... these are international collaborations for a reason.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#24Totally implausible scenario, but what would happen if Google were to say "to hell with this" and just completely pull out of the EU? Like full-stop, nothing Google touching the EU. Would there be riots? Would governments try to force Google back? Like, are they so essential to digital life that a complete withdrawal would cause some amount of chaos? And if that's the case, isn't an antitrust suit a bit disingenuous?…
In the short term there would be a lot of VPN access as people tried to deal with the chaos of having to transition away from gmail. I'd be very surprised if they just turned it off one day without warning, but if they did that would burn a lot of customer goodwill and provoke a class action from all their datacenter customers.
In the medium term? Having a social network with no Europeans on it kills G+ fairly rapidly, or it becomes a minority thing like Orkut. Likewise AppEngine is hobbled if it won't talk to Europe. People will undoubtedly continue to use and buy their Android phones (many of which are not bought from google but third parties) unless Google actively bricks them.
Remote-bricking all European Android devices is the nuclear option. Google is sued for billions. Google executives can no longer set foot in the EU without being arrested. International trade war starts. Google is declared an "unlawful combatant" and their HQ is bombed by DGSE.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the Google services would be replaced by (at first lower quality) European versions. This would create a huge investment and tech sector growth wave. One of the best things to happen to the European tech scene since the beginning of the Internet. You can see this happening in Russia, China and India although for different reasons. Even if this case doesn't change anything I think we will see Google's involvement…
All? At first, lower quality? I think you massively underestimate how much investment is required to produce even a basic search engine, let alone one that eventually catches up to what Google has produced. And that's just search. Now throw in Gmail, Maps, Android, Chrome, etc ... these are international collaborations for a reason.
There are plenty of replacements for all of those except Android. Multiple browsers, various mapping companies (including OpenStreetMap), multiple email providers, multiple browser vendors.
There's also Bing, and the various ancient abandoned former greats of search: Altavista (now Yahoo), Lycos.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the Google services would be replaced by (at first lower quality) European versions. This would create a huge investment and tech sector growth wave. One of the best things to happen to the European tech scene since the beginning of the Internet. You can see this happening in Russia, China and India although for different reasons. Even if this case doesn't change anything I think we will see Google's involvement…
All? At first, lower quality? I think you massively underestimate how much investment is required to produce even a basic search engine, let alone one that eventually catches up to what Google has produced. And that's just search. Now throw in Gmail, Maps, Android, Chrome, etc ... these are international collaborations for a reason.
There are already working search engine alternative, from Qwant to bing. One can definitely live without google as a search engine.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#27I'm not sure if I am understanding it well. Does the EU have an issue with Google Chrome coming pre-installed with Android? In that case, shouldn't Microsoft face the same penalties since IE/Edge comes pre-installed on the Windows OS? I believe that these pre-installed apps can't be uninstalled (because it might happen that you end up with no browsers on your phone), but would making the app uninstallable solve this…
Microsoft already faced an antitrust suit about this issue several years ago. It resulted in the mandatory browser choice ballot when first starting a new Windows system.[0]
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#28I'm not sure if I am understanding it well. Does the EU have an issue with Google Chrome coming pre-installed with Android? In that case, shouldn't Microsoft face the same penalties since IE/Edge comes pre-installed on the Windows OS? I believe that these pre-installed apps can't be uninstalled (because it might happen that you end up with no browsers on your phone), but would making the app uninstallable solve this…
This was literally the EU case against Microsoft over IE bundling.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#29The best possible outcome I could see from something like this is the opening up of the Play Store ecosystem to third party Android forks. The contention is over Google licensing Android branding and its proprietary apps running on top of the AOSP and requiring them all be shipped together. The problem isn't the OS itself, it is the Play Store hegemony and the fact you cannot reasonably ship an Android phone without…
>. The problem isn't the OS itself, it is the Play Store hegemony and the fact you cannot reasonably ship an Android phone without it - nobody would buy it. isn't this what amazon does?
While the Fire Phone may not have done well, all the Amazon Fire products are Android based. This includes the Fire Phone, Fire Tablets, and Fire TV.
Re: EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
#30I'm not sure if I am understanding it well. Does the EU have an issue with Google Chrome coming pre-installed with Android? In that case, shouldn't Microsoft face the same penalties since IE/Edge comes pre-installed on the Windows OS? I believe that these pre-installed apps can't be uninstalled (because it might happen that you end up with no browsers on your phone), but would making the app uninstallable solve this…
Neither do I. I would not be surprised at all if some company is behind this.