Google—EU fined Google record €4.34 billion for illegally tying Android apps and suppressing competition
In July 2018, the European Commission fined Google a record €4.34 billion ($5 billion) for abusing Android's dominant position. Google required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition for licensing the Google Play Store, and paid large manufacturers and carriers to exclusively pre-install Google Search. The fine was the largest EU antitrust penalty ever. Combined with the 2017 Shopping fine (€2.4B) and 2019 AdSense fine (€1.49B, later annulled), Google received €8.25 billion in EU antitrust fines.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antitrust & Competition | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.180 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
European Commission fined Google record €4.34 billion for illegal Android app bundling
The European Commission fined Google €4.34 billion for requiring Android device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition for licensing the Play Store, and paying manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google Search. The fine was the largest EU antitrust penalty at the time.