ITT Americans don't care about companies (especially American ones) that abuse their positions as monopolies.
European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
471–480 of 975 posts
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#472They will attack Google for bundling Google services with their OS and yet all I want is stock Android free from OEM apps (Samsung please).
That is essentially what Android One is.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#473This is a dangerous ruling that pushes the world further into the potential for trade wars by proxy. Contrary to numerous posts- -no, the law isn't "clear". This is an incredibly nuanced situation, and the notion that Google was just overtly flouting (ed: thx sjcsjc) the law is outright nonsense. Google has a huge litany of bad practices (I personally recently switched my daily driver to an iPhone for that reason), b…
Considering how much Google profits from selling users private information, this is well deserved karma.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#474This is crazy. It's like if Android wasn't open source at all this wouldn't be an issue. But because it is open source they're being punished.
False. Windows isn't open source and they got quite the same reacction with the accusation of using their monopoly to manipulate users into using internet explorer, thus resulting in a windows version with an initial browser choice when starting first. I don't know how much they were fined though...
So really Apple should also get a similar fine since you can't install any other default browser or map.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#475IMHO, antitrust fines/penalties should change from amount of money to some other type of penalty, like temporary market exclusion/block or something, otherwise companies like Google and others can simply use its cash (that's was also made due to the unfair advantage), pay the fine and move on to the next market dominance. They will always have cash to pay, even if the fines are higher and higher. They kind of expect…
Surely you just believe that the fine is not high enough, not that it is ineffective in principle? There exists a number X which is the amount that google could be fined where they are ambivalent between that fine and a ban from the market for some period of time which is what you had in mind. Thus, a fine would be equally effective at X. So I don't see why you think fines are fundamentally ineffective?
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#476Very slightly off topic but I actually think how Android handles default apps is the best of both worlds. It comes with very very good default Google Apps that work well together but it is very easy to switch out whatever you want for an alternative. How iOS handles it is the opposite. For their default apps they either straight out not allow competitors, severely limit what their competitors or (if I remember correc…
> It comes with very very good default Google Apps that work well together
Have you tried Google Duo?
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#477This is a dangerous ruling that pushes the world further into the potential for trade wars by proxy. Contrary to numerous posts- -no, the law isn't "clear". This is an incredibly nuanced situation, and the notion that Google was just overtly flouting (ed: thx sjcsjc) the law is outright nonsense. Google has a huge litany of bad practices (I personally recently switched my daily driver to an iPhone for that reason), b…
> This is a dangerous ruling that pushes the world further into the potential for trade wars by proxy.
Don't think trade wars applies. The reasons were given and I think they are correct. Personally I'm glad that the EU has the power to (at least a bit) influence such huge corporations.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
A better source: > The European Commission has accused Google of abusing its Android market dominance by bundling its search engine and Chrome apps into the operating system. Google has also allegedly blocked phone makers from creating devices that run forked versions of Android. https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/18/17580694/google-android-e... > How is it any different Apple doesn’t have a dominent search engine to pu…
Oh, Apple is a brutal dictatorship that doesn't share anything? That's fine. Oh, Google, you're willing to share almost everything with anyone for free, but you want to put terms on that? Hey, here's a giant fine. I just don't understand the logic of this at all.
Neither of those actions are illegal per se, but just because you it's not illegal to dictate terms doesn't mean you're allowed to choose any terms you want.
The problem here is that Google allegedly dictated terms that gave them an unfair advantage in an unrelated market, breaching EU antitrust law.
A stricter antitrust law might have prevented them from gaining such a dominant position in the first place, but that doesn't seem to be the issue here.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it is. Straight from the press release: > Market dominance is, as such, not illegal under EU antitrust rules. However, dominant companies have a special responsibility not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition, either in the market where they are dominant or in separate markets. > Google has engaged in three separate types of practices, which all had the aim of cementing Google's dom…
You said it "Market dominance is, as such, not illegal under EU antitrust rules." It isn't about a monopoly, it's about abusing power.
It’s about abusing the power of a monopolistic position in the market. The power being abused is the monopoly power.
If you don’t have a monopoly and do things your partners/competitors don’t like, they can’t complain that you are abusing a dominant market position to get away with it.
There’s nothing wrong with bundling. But when you have a monopoly on the market bundling suddenly is wrong and abusive even if it’s the right thing for your end users.
So we see time and again monopolies are knee-capped in the market and face these absurd fines, in the name of fairness and competition.
I have no doubt that some monopolies leverage their market dominance for some pretty atrocious dealings. I personally see nothing wrong with Google licensing the optional (but extremely popular) Google Play services such that it requires Google Search and Chrome along with it.
If they were unrelated then the experience of Google Play Services would be identical with or without the other pieces (Chrome and Search). I don’t use Android so I can’t say for sure, but I’m quite confident that the overall experience suffers without all three pieces together.
Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is a kind of silly decision on Google's part, because they have far and away the superior product and also the superior brand. Even if the option was given at setup, nearly everyone choosing to buy an Andriod phone would select google as the default search engine... (I guess you could say that didn't see this coming, but the parallels with MSFT and IE are pretty hard to not see...) The fine is going to hurt a l…
I believe you are wrong. In Russia Yandex has grown a lot after the option was given at setup.
A lot? It was about ~50% and increased by a couple of percents.