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European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

europa.eu

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Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#581

Post by atomi »

endorphone wrote: post #286

This 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…

Google will start charging phone manufacturers to use Android on their devices. And they'll pass that on to consumers. The EU will get their check.

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#582

Post by shawabawa3 »

itsmenotyou wrote: post #461
wongarsu wrote: post #429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They're a part of the same suite of apps that provide the "Android experience" The thing they were fined for was >[Google] has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google's app store (the Play Store); How is the Play Store related to the Google Seach app or to Chrome? One is an app store, one is a seach bar and one is a browser. They have…

> How is the Play Store related to the Google Seach app or to Chrome? - They're not, and the attempt to claim they are part of a mobile "suite" is the same sort of obfuscation Microsoft used when they argued a web browser (IE) was an essential part of a desktop OS. This ruling seems obvious to me.

> same sort of obfuscation Microsoft used when they argued a web browser (IE) was an essential part of a desktop OS

How is a web browser not an essential part of a desktop OS.

Literally every single consumer operating system comes bundled with a web browser, and in fact everyone bundles their own

OSX: Safari

ChromeOS: Chrome

Windows: Edge

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#583

Post by whostolemyhat »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #574
DenisM wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is whether manufacturers had a choice, and the problem is that they did not because monopoly. Massive fines discourage monopolistic behavior, if nothing else.

> Massive fines discourage monopolistic behavior, if nothing else. The problem is businesses may take it as a signal that the EU is against foreign businesses rather than against monopolistic practices, in which case the thing being deterred is doing business in the EU rather than monopolistic practices. To show otherwise they would have to levy equally large fines against local businesses engaged in the same sort of…

Microsoft had to have a browser choice screen the first time you tried to use IE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#584

Post by jacksmith21006 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #291
throwawayjava wrote: post #202

Earlier 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…

Much of their entire dominance as a company hinges on pushing defaults, and their ability to force manufacturers to ship Google apps, on any phone sold in the EU, is a massive blow. The penalty is chump change for Google, but the remedy is what is going to hurt long term, because competitors can finally get in the game.

People will still just chose to use Google. Look at Windows in the US and Google dominates browsers, search, YouTube, etc.

This is just a shakedown of Google. In the end the EU consumer will pay the price. Sure glad I live in the US. Just hope Google treats the EU differently than the US. When switch to Fuchsia just charge for it in the EU and give for free in the US.

The consumer will pay more for a phone and still use Google services making Google even more money.

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#586

Post by mrguyorama »

unit91 wrote: post #549
keerthiko wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a shocker? They own google.com and they want to upsell another product, and aren't forcing it upon users or vendors. This seems like normal/standard business practice. Bundling IE with Windows was not the problem, but forcing PC vendors to only sell with Windows installed, and aggressively forcing IE to be the default browser was. On the other hand, building "web" apps that only run on chrome, that was a…

> On the other hand, building "web" apps that only run on chrome, that was a shocker for me. Wow, I wasn't aware of this. Do you recall any examples?

There was a solid half a year where google hangouts does not work on current versions of Firefox. It claims that Firefox support is in development, but the actuality of it is that hangouts was deprecated for hangouts meet, which does support firefox

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#587

Post by ktosobcy »

mattigames wrote: post #533
MBCook wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Apple pre-installs it on Apple’s phones. Apple can do whatever they want on Apple phones. Google is forcing installations on Samsung phones, LG phones, etc through their contract. It is entirely possible what Apple is doing would be illegal IF they licensed/sold the OS to other OEMs.

Yeah, what Google is learning here is that you should never license your OS/sell to other manufacturers and never make it open-source and just go the Apple route instead, create the device yourself and make the OS completely proprietary and closed.

Which would allow google to gain dominance in the mobile market... NOT. Google/Android won because it was very open and flexible, but the moment they started to dominate they started to push their agenda on OEMs users…

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#588

Post by AnthonyMouse »

whostolemyhat wrote: post #583
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Massive fines discourage monopolistic behavior, if nothing else. The problem is businesses may take it as a signal that the EU is against foreign businesses rather than against monopolistic practices, in which case the thing being deterred is doing business in the EU rather than monopolistic practices. To show otherwise they would have to levy equally large fines against local businesses engaged in the same sort of…

Microsoft had to have a browser choice screen the first time you tried to use IE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

> Microsoft had to have a browser choice screen the first time you tried to use IE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

And if that actually restores competition then you don't need a five billion dollar fine.

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#589

Post by jumelles »

endorphone wrote: post #286

This 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…

The fine is supposed to be enormous, it’s not just a slap on the wrist.

Re: European Commission fines Google €4.34B in Android antitrust case

#590

Post by MBCook »

VikingCoder wrote: post #552
mattigames wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, what Google is learning here is that you should never license your OS/sell to other manufacturers and never make it open-source and just go the Apple route instead, create the device yourself and make the OS completely proprietary and closed.

Exactly. This is so back-asswards.

You can be open. You just can’t use contracts to extend your monopoly to other areas.

This is not an open/closed dichotomy. This is a free/controlled market issue.

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