E.U. Hits Google With $5 Billion Ginned-Up Protectionist Fines: New at Reason

The European Union’s antitrust bureaucracy today levied a $5 billion fine on Google, a new European record.

In a statement, the European Commission alleged that Google violated the law in three ways: unlawfully tying its search and browser apps to the Android operating system, paying manufacturers to pre-install Google Search on devices, and making it difficult for device manufacturers to sell “forked” versions of Android, such as versions running Amazon’s Fire OS.

It’s a restatement of the Commission’s preliminary conclusions from 2016, meaning Google’s arguments over the last two years have proven entirely unsuccessful, writes Declan McCullagh.

View this article.