Who gets the $4B? How will it be determined where it's spent?
Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
391–400 of 458 posts
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#392Cool. The EU does have its [many!] faults. But they have a pretty good track record when it comes to consumer rights and consumer choice. Next up I'd like to see them do the same for the plethora of incompatible cordless power-tool systems out there as they did with insisting all mobile phones standardise on a USB connector.
Sadly this decision will lead to more fragmentation, not less, won't it? Would have be nice if there was a path forward for Android standards.
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#393A summary of the original findings by the European Commission (1): "By decision of 18 July 2018, the Commission fined Google for having abused its dominant position by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers of mobile devices and on mobile network operators, in some cases since 1 January 2011. Three types of restriction were identified: 1. those contained in ‘distribution agreements’, requi…
So I have no doubt Google threw their weight around in the Android space. It's known that they impose conditions for access to the Google suite of apps. But I have a thought that I have a hard time reconciling. Imagine Google had gone the Apple route of vertically integrating handset production, distribution and sale in the same way Apple did. If they had, there would be no antitrust issue, just like there isn't with…
Well, one way to lose an antitrust case is putting obviously anticompetitive clauses into contracts, like here. This is much easier to prove than the whole "customer harm through abuse of dominant market position" thing!
Much like when Jobs called up all the book publishers and told them straight up "we gotta agree on one price among us, and remember we are doing this to harm Amazon who we both hate". Now this was a slam dunk prosecution!
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#394Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#395Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe not, but what's the alternative? Should we give up because of incompatibilities and go back to proprietary cables for everyone? Do we move back to DC jacks that offer no voltage negotiation so you can blow up your 5V battery pack with a 24V input? You're letting perfect be the enemy of good here. Also I think the ideal endgame is that your Beats Flex headphones don't come with cables at all because of standardi…
If the aim is to prevent eWaste yes. Someone should be able to buy a “standard” USB access cable and know that it actually work across devices if it is government mandated. If not, what’s the point of the “standard”?
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Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, this thread is in the parallel universe in which Google would have sold only its own Android devices. So no Android + LG, Sony, Samsung, Huawei, etc. If you look at Google's hardware's capabilities, Android would have flopped immediately. As bad as the org level issues were with Windows Phone, it would have still beaten Android-on-Google-hardware-only.
Microsoft actually charged a license fee for Windows Phone OS which is just one of many reasons OEM's abandoned the OS. Google also would have undercut their licensing fees to ensure their failure. Additionally, the absence of any Google apps would have also ensured a quick death for Windows Phone. Its failure was inevitable and justified for what they did to their customers and OEM's.
In this hypothetical Android apps are far less relevant with that ecosystem only being present on Google phones.
I wonder without AOSP or some other major FOSS mobile operating system to shake things up, if smartphones would be more like the PDA industry in the 1990s, with proprietary OS's from OEMs competing with each other. Maybe Palm sticks around and webOS gets a long lease on life. Maybe Samsung, Intel, the Linux Foundation, and co. try to get mass adoption of Tizen, with hilarious results. Though perhaps if Nokia sticks around, MeeGo as based on the Harmattan design in the N9 gets wider use, delaying the need for a successor like Tizen. In any case, with only Apple and Microsoft as their mobile competitors and without Android devices cutting at their margins, BlackBerry still has a fighting chance.
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google forced them to take the Play Store and search widget (including default search engine) as a condition to get Play Services. Play Services is required by a majority of android apps and developping and maintening a compatible system layer is just out of reach of most(all?) device makers.
Yes, but my point is - can’t they they just not use the play store at all like lineageos? Ultimately Google will always have control over android if what you’re saying is true unless an alternative ecosystem is created
> can’t they they just not use the play store at all like lineageos?
This changes nothing about if google's behavior was illegally tying two products together.
You are bringing up a non-sequitor that does not change the law.
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
#2 is the same thing Microsoft got busted for by US antitrust in the late 90s. Microsoft had required computer vendors to NOT sell computers with other OSes (eg Linux). At one point they insisted computer vendors pay for a Windows license on all computers they shipped, even ones shipped without Windows.
The video deposition of Gates was pretty damning during their anti-trust case. I just remember watching it and having my image of Gates shattered right in front of me. The amount of unhinged arrogance and hubris he had was startling. I know it really damaged his clean cut, good guy image and many of my friends said it completely reversed their opinion of him.
Do you think today's Gates really learned his lesson and became a better person, or just better at putting on a show?
Re: Google loses EU appeal and is fined a record $4B
#400A summary of the original findings by the European Commission (1): "By decision of 18 July 2018, the Commission fined Google for having abused its dominant position by imposing anticompetitive contractual restrictions on manufacturers of mobile devices and on mobile network operators, in some cases since 1 January 2011. Three types of restriction were identified: 1. those contained in ‘distribution agreements’, requi…
So I have no doubt Google threw their weight around in the Android space. It's known that they impose conditions for access to the Google suite of apps. But I have a thought that I have a hard time reconciling. Imagine Google had gone the Apple route of vertically integrating handset production, distribution and sale in the same way Apple did. If they had, there would be no antitrust issue, just like there isn't with…
If me and my wife decide to run with the bulls there is no legal wrong doing so I don't understand why child protective services took little suzy away just because she a five year old had to run away in stark terror from a ton of hooves and fury barely escaping with her life!
Differing relationships come with differing obligations. It appears fairly straightforward that its illegal in Europe to impose such obligations on other market players. If they couldn't abide by that they could have declined to do business in the continent. It's not really weird that different places have different rules.