Google fined €4.3bn by EU over Android case

Tech giant Google has been fined €4.3bn ($5bn) by the European Union for abusing its market position over smartphone makers and ordered to change the way it puts web browser apps on Android devices.

The fine is the highest penalty ever given out by any antitrust authority and it brings the running total of Google fines to about €6.7bn after last year’s penalty over shopping-search services.

The European Commission has been investigating a formal complaint against the company lodged in April 2016 that accused the firm of forcing Android phone manufacturers to accept some of the company’s services to licence its Playstore app store for free.

The EU also targeted Google’s incentive payments to some of the largest device manufacturers as well as mobile device makers on condition that they exclusively pre-installed Google Search across their entire portfolio.

This prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called "Android forks").

Google argued that the contracts help manufacturers compete against Apple and ensures the Android software remains free.

EC antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Google had "used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine".

"These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits.They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules."

Shares in Google parent Alphabet were down 0.5% in pre-market trading in New York on Wednesday.