Google has presented this week before the Court of Justice of the European Union a Appeal against record fine filed by the European Commission for the alleged Android monopoly.
Google’s appeal before TUE arrives two years after a lower court, even He used its Android mobile operating system to prevent competition and maintain its domain position.
The case dates back to 2015 when the EU competence regulator will appreciate sufficient indications of violation of the community antitrust laws and the principles included in the EU operation treaty. A year later, the EU formally accused Google of applying a strategy “To maintain and reinforce its dominant position in the general search on the Internet” taking advantage of its domain position on Android.
Finally, in 2018, the European Competition Commission 4,343 million euros (The greatest sanction in its history) for three infractions to European regulations in the use of Android, “Dening the competition the opportunity to innovate and compete”highlighted the curator. The fine was calculated on the basis of Google’s income value from advertising services in search engines on Android devices in the EEE.
At that time, Google issued a statement in which it announced an appeal to the opinion: “Android has created more options for everyone, no less. A thriving ecosystem, rapid innovations and lower prices are classic distinctive of strong competition. We will resort to the sentence of the Commission ”.
Google appeals
Seven years after the fine the case is still pending And this week the appeal of Google has arrived against the TUE with similar argument: “Google does not question or avoid your responsibility under the law, but the commission also has a responsibility when you carry out investigations, when you try to remodel the markets and question procompective business models and when you impose multimillion -dollar fines”explained lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid to the high court.
“In this case, the commission did not comply with its burden and responsibility and, based on multiple law errors, punished Google for its higher merits, its attractiveness and its innovation”he said. Lamadrid defended the Google agreements that forced the telephone manufacturers to Pre -Install Google Search, the Chrome browser and the Google Play application store on their Android devices, and prevented them from using rival Android systems. «These agreements and conditions did not restrict the competition, they fostered it »he said,
The high European court will issue its ruling in the coming months. Your decision will be final and cannot be appealed. It is not the only antitrust case that Alphabet, the Google matrix, has pending in the EU and is expected to also resolve its advertising technology.
