As EU anti-trust head’s press conference nears, Google has announced fresh measures with more flexibility to Android users in Europe. The third anti-trust fine, that is set to be levied on Alphabet-owned Google, is what has driven the company to announce newer measures.
These product tweaks titled ‘Supporting choice and competition in Europe’, will now start prompting users of existing and new Android devices in Europe to ask which browser and search apps they would like to use. According to a Reuters report, the prompt will surface to Android users via the Play Store.
Of course, the timing and title of this announcement has everything to do with the third anti trust fine that the company is about to bear. The EU competition commission has already blamed Google, that its pre-installed browser and search apps offer it an indirect advantage over competitors.
Till date, the company has already been levied with close to $8Bn in fines by the EU regulator. Last year, the European competition commissioner imposed a record 4.34 billion euro ($4.91 billion) fine on Google for using Android to block rivals. This followed a 2.4 billion euro fine levied in 2017 for blocking rivals of shopping comparison websites.
European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will hold a news conference on an antitrust case at 1030 GMT (11.30 a.m. Brussels time), the European Commission said on Wednesday.
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