‘EU investigates abuse of Android’s dominant position’

The European Commission may start a new competition case against Google. The search giant may have abused the dominance of Android, the Commission has requested information from various companies for an investigation.

Reuters news agency reports that it was given access to questionnaires sent by the Commission to a number of companies that do business with Google through anonymous sources. Those companies must also send all relevant communications, meeting minutes and presentations from the past seven years to the Commission. The information is used for a preparatory investigation on the basis of which the Commission decides whether to start a case.

If device manufacturers want to install the latest version of Android on a device, they must conclude a contract with the search giant. This would state that a number of Google apps must be pre-installed on the device. The Commission now wants to know, among other things, whether the American company also demands that no competing services are supplied with the device.

Last year, several of Google’s competitors already demanded that the Commission should start an investigation into Android; the mobile operating system currently has a market share of eighty percent. In a response to the news, Google states that Android can be used without the Google services and that the American and Korean competition authorities had no objections to the agreements regarding Android.

The Commission’s investigation is separate from the case of how Google displays results from competing services in its search engine results. In that case, Google has been negotiating with the Commission about a settlement proposal for some time.