“Google Inc. could soon face a formal complaint by European Union regulators over its Android operating system for mobile phones, just as it is seeking to address separate concerns over its dominance in Internet search in Europe,” Vanessa Mock reports for The Wall Street Journal. “In their joint complaint, Nokia Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and over a dozen other companies accuse Google of anticompetitive behavior because of the way it uses Android to promote its own applications on smartphones.”
“‘Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,’ said Thomas Vinje, the chief lawyer for Fairsearch, a coalition of Google’s competitors,” Mock reports. “The complaint says manufacturers of Android-powered smartphones who want to include Google apps such as Maps, YouTube or Play are required to preload an entire suite of Google mobile services and to give them prominent default placement on the phone.”
Mock reports, “The EU’s antitrust chief, Joaquín Almunia, has referred several times to concerns over Android over the past year, but hasn’t yet indicated whether he will take up the case… Google is facing several other probes in Europe, which could lead to millions of dollars in additional fines. Last week, six European privacy regulators launched parallel investigations into Google’s handling of users’ personal data.”
Read more in the full article here.
At the same time, Google is increasing its lobbying effort in EU counties.
if you cant beat them buy them…
“Please bend over.”
“Now would that be an anal or oesophageal probe, sir?”
I think you’ve just defined what ‘open’ means for Android.
haha – terrible – yet funny
Fat Boy needs an enema.
Its weird to see microsoft in that list of complainers, because what the complain about is exactly what they did all the time back in the 90s
Actually if MS can’t get away with it why should someone else? Makes perfect sense to me.
As with Samsung and the Apple lawsuit over design, the horse is out of the barn and any fines, etc. will do nothing to correct the damage already done. These lawsuits are useless and everyone knows it. Google, like Samsung, took a risk and both will come out winners no matter how many fines are leaved. It is capitalism. The meaning of fair and just are not part of the lexicon.
Microsoft pointing fingers at Google is a bit like the devil saying, “We may torture the $#!^ out of you, but we do respect your personal information here in hell.”
The pot calling the kettle black….
Behold the Axis of True Evil!
Google SUCKS! MS SUCKS! Samsung SUCKS!
I have said it before and I will say it again, Android, Gmail even Google search are not google products. What they are is data mining utilities used to increase the value of googles only product “You”. The more data google has on you the more you are worth to advertisers. Google is more evil than almost any other tech company.
Yup. And Facebook is even worse.
in WW2 the titanic struggle in Europe was between the two despots: Stalin and Hilter.
80% of Nazi casualties were on the Eastern front.
the two crazy dudes kept throwing their resources into the struggle.
Now Msft and Google are fighting over the bottom barrel masses and the ‘make it cheap’ OEMs.
(Msft is falling apart, hundreds of millions spent on Win 8 turns into a dud, google makes about $100+ million a year off android — from Oracle court case info — and spent $12,000 million on money losing Motorola for phone patents… )
Good analogy. It’s obviously a good situation for Apple, which would play the role of the US in WW2. But if MS is Hitler and Google is Stalin, we know who the winner is and that will mean a long Cold War. As much as I hate Google and I certainly don’t use any of their products, I’d say Google seems much better positioned than MS is right now. MS seems like they’re getting rather desperate to stem the tide that is engulfing them.
I am so so happy to hear this news
dig up Googles crap AND SLAM THEM hard
lets see ANDROID punished and removed form this PLANET
the dirty dozen want to know if Google is dirty too?