The European Union antitrust commission has concluded that Google has abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device makers, reports ArsTechnica. The company now has three months to respond to the commission’s charges. If the decision stands, Google will stand to be fined 10% of its annual turnover. In April last year, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Google to investigate the if the company had illegally hindered the development and market access of rival mobile OSes, apps and services in the European Economic Area. These proceedings were to investigate Google’s requirement of manufacturers to exclusively install its own apps, the company preventing the marketing of modified and potentially competing versions of Android and the bundling of certain Google apps and services. These proceedings are separate from the Commission’s investigation into Google’s behaviour in internet search. Google’s Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA): Note that while Android is free and open source for developers to use and distribute, Google places atrocious conditions on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to ensure that they do not fork from Google offered Android. A leaked document (MADA) at Ars Technica in 2014, revealed that Google requires OEMs to include all its apps or none at all. Additionally, the agreement places a company-wide ban on Android forks, forbidding OEMs from taking “any actions that may cause or result in the fragmentation of Android” and disallowing distributing or encouraging a third party to distribute “a software development kit derived from Android.” Russian anticompetitive fines: In…
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