The European Commission on Wednesday formally accused Google of abusing its dominant market position with its Android operating system and suspects it made secret payments and exclusive deals to protect its power, the European version of Politico reported.
”This complaint is of great importance, particularly in a context in which smartphones and tablets play an ever bigger role in the everyday life of many Europeans,” said Margrethe Vestager, commissioner for competition. ”It is now obviously clear… Google violates EU competition laws, since it makes the development and the market entry of rival operating systems, apps and services more difficult,” Politico wrote.
In response, Google said in a blog post that it takes the Commission`s concerns seriously and that its business model helps keeps manufacturers` costs low. The company also said its partner agreements are voluntary as anyone can use Android without Google.
Google has 12 weeks to make an official response.
The Commission alleged Google breached European Union antitrust rules by forcing manufacturers to pre-install its Search app and Chrome browser and set them as a default options. The Commission said Google also prevented manufacturers from selling mobile devices that used competing operating systems and gave financial incentives to manufacturers and mobile operators to exclusively pre-install Search.
”We feel that innovation in Europe could be much quicker if there are no constraints in competition in the services Google provides. We don`t think it is too late,” said Paulo Trezentos, founder and chief executive of Aptoide, a Portuguese app store that complained to the Commission.
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