On 18 June 2018, the European Commission compelled Google to pay a fine of 4.3 billion euros. The main argument for this sanction is the obligation that the technological behemoth imposes on mobile phone operators who use its operating system Android to pre-install, in all their devices, Google applications such as Maps or Gmail, as well as the commitment of not using alternative versions of Android not previously approved by the company.
For the Commission, these practices are illegal and have safeguarded a dominant position of Google on internet searches by means of anti-competitive practices, which has ended up impairing both the freedom of election of consumers and the capacity of competitors to provide their services. Google has already announced the appealing of the decision.
A history that repeats itself
The current fine to Google beats a new record on the sanctions imposed by the Commission, preceded precisely by another one to the same company in June 2017, for having granted its price comparison services for online purchases a more favourable position vis-à-vis that of its competitors.
Our task in this kind of conflicts
Free competition is one of the fields in which Alonso & Asociados has more experience and where it offers integral consultancy and advocacy services before the complexities derived from the compliance of EU legislation. The book El lobby en la Unión Europea – Manual sobre el buen uso de Bruselas, written by our Managing-Partner, Emiliano Alonso, reflects with precision and by means of examples the work that lobbies can perform as intermediaries between our clients and the European Union. You can find the last edition of the book (2016) here and, if you have questions with that regard, do not hesitate to contact us at info@alonsoassociates.com or at +32(0)2 230 70 42.