Google hits back at EU over Android fine

Luxembourg: Google hit back in court against the EU on Monday as it appealed against a record fine levied by the bloc for monopolistic practices with its Android operating system on mobile devices.

The 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) penalty, imposed by the European Commission in 2018, was the biggest-ever slapped on the American search engine juggernaut. The case being heard in the EU’s general court is a major test for EU competition supremo Margerthe Vestager, who already lost an appeal by Apple and Ireland over taxes.

Google argues that the EU’s accusations over its highly popular operating system are unfounded and falsely blame it for blocking rivals on its search and maps apps on Android phones. "Android is in truth an exceptional success story of the power of competition in action," Google lawyer Meredith Pickford told a five-judge panel. Moreover, the company contends that the EU case is unfairly blind to the presence of Apple, which imposes or gives clear preference to its own services such as Safari on iPhones. "We will explain that... the commission shut its eyes to the real competitive dynamic in this industry, that between Apple and Android," Pickford argued.

He also said that downloading rival apps was only a click away and that customers were in no way tied to Google products on Android. The EU and its backers contend that Google used contracts with phone makers in the early days of Android to snuff out rivals.

This was done "at a critical time in the development of mobile computing, when the market was still contestable," said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer representing FairSearch, whose original complaint launched the case in 2015.