Google hit with €4.3bn Android fine from EU

Image copyright Getty Images/GoogleGoogle has been fined a record €4.34bn ($5bn; £3.9bn) over Android. However, it could easily afford the fine if required - its cash reserves totalled nearly $103bn at the end of March . Image copyright Yandex Image caption Yandex has seen gained market share on Android phones ever Google changed its behaviour in RussiaYandex in particular has benefited from this. ever the change in June 2017, the Moscow-based firm has seen its share of mobile search height from about 34% to 46%, according to Statcounter . The European Commission had the power to fine Google up to 10% of its annual revenue.

Google may have to make major changes to Android in response to a forthcoming fine in Europe

At the heart of the E.U.'s looming decision are Google's policies that pressure phone and tablet manufacturers that use Google's Android operating system to pre-install the tech giant's own apps. As a result, her forthcoming ruling could prohibit Google from striking such app-installation deals by device makers, experts have said. Packaging equipment like search, and including them on Android devices, offers the company a method to capture data about users — and display them more ads. In the E.U.'s formal list of allegations, first announced in 2016, Vestager took issue by the method Google manages Android. Google maintains that it's to ensure Android, an open-source operating system, is a consistent experience for users even if they change devices.

Google secretly tried to stop the probe into Android a year before its record $5 billion fine from the EU

according to ReutersGoogle secretly tried to settle by the European Union's competition watchdog over the investigation into Google's Android operating system, Bloomberg reports. The European Commission hit Google by a 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) fine last 7 days for abusing the dominance of its mobile operating system. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said Bloomberg that Google began trying to fix the investigation a year before the fine was imposed. "that didn't happen in this case and then, of course, it takes the route that it has now taken," Vestager said Bloomberg. Consequently, Google's lawyers never received a formal response, and the EU opted for a cease-and-desist letter.

collected by :Maya Tony