(File photo)
The European Commission is set to fine Google 4.3 billion euros (around 5 billion US dollars) for monopoly with its Android operating system, alleging it violating the EU competition rules, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
"The European Commission has fined Google 4.34 billion euros for breaching EU antitrust rules.Since 2011, Google has imposed illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to cement its dominant position in general internet search," said the European Commission in a statement.
"Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine. These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules," said Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy.
The Commission now wants Google to bring the conduct effectively to an end within 90 days, otherwise it will face penalty payments of up to 5 percent of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company.
