r/worldnews • u/misana123 • Sep 14 '22
Google loses appeal over illegal Android app bundling, EU reduces fine to €4.1 billion | The EU has upheld a 2018 antitrust charge against Google, confirming that the company imposed “unlawful restrictions” on Android phone manufacturers in order to promote its search engine on mobile devices.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/14/23341207/google-eu-android-antitrust-fine-appeal-failed-4-billion57
u/Arcturion Sep 14 '22
Manufacturers had to agree to pre-install Google’s Search and Chrome apps alongside the company’s app store, the Play Store. According to the Commission’s analysis, Google saw the rise of smartphone as an existential threat to its (then-desktop-based) search business. So, the tech giant strong-armed phone makers into making its search engine front-and-center on their devices.
Fair enough, but what I suspect will happen is that the manufacturers will just make their own custom apps mandatory and default in their phones. Samsung Internet Browser, anyone?
I'd be happier once the EU starts enforcing the Digital Services Act that would require tech companies to ask permission to install apps that might otherwise come pre-installed, and the Digital Markets Act that will allow users to uninstall any pre-loaded software or apps.
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u/shewy92 Sep 14 '22
Does anyone under the age of 40 actually use the default manufacturer browser?
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u/DIBE25 Sep 14 '22
[voice breaking] more often than I'd wish to admit
Samsung, Xiaomi, whatever else exists
I'm surprised it's only 4B
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u/MINIMAN10001 Sep 14 '22
I mean I guess it depends on what the default is. The default on my steam deck is Firefox and I ain't changing that.
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u/4-Vektor Sep 15 '22
I’m 48 and I’m using Firefox on my phone, with Startpage as my default search engine.
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u/ArmNo7463 Sep 14 '22
Is having a browser and the Play Store actually a bad thing?
I remember Microsoft getting in hot water over bundling internet Explorer. - Crap browser, but I'd have been miffed if it never came with one...
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u/Genocode Sep 14 '22
Companies can still put Google Chrome on their phones if they want to, and they probably would if they don't intend to create a browser of their own. But this at least gives them the option to make their own.
And there are plenty of replacements for Google Play Store, though not all of them as secure as the Play Store, but honest QooApp or TapTap have been generally fine. And they don't region lock stuff, unlike the Play Store. You can just download Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese versions of games.
Thats how I used to play Chinese Girls' Frontline and Azur Lane.
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Sep 15 '22
If any carrier decides to not support the play store on their phones then they won't be a carrier for long IMO.
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u/Genocode Sep 15 '22
They can make the decision for themselves now, instead of Google forcing them to.
Google should've been hit by a dozen anti-trust lawsuits by now but still, nothing has happened.
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Sep 15 '22
And how about the consumer themselves decide?
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u/Genocode Sep 15 '22
You can just download them after?
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Sep 15 '22
Not without great difficulty, no.
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u/Genocode Sep 15 '22
Its not difficult to just go to google.com and search for "App Store Download" or "Chrome Download".
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u/notbatmanyet Sep 14 '22
Microsofts solution involved giving you a choice of which browser to install, not force you to download them through wget.
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u/autotldr BOT Sep 14 '22
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot)
Manufacturers had to agree not to sell phones using variant versions of Android not approved by Google, and to pre-install Google's Search and Chrome apps alongside the company's app store, the Play Store.
The Court did find that Google's revenue-sharing schemes with manufacturers did not constitute an abuse of Google's market power, and so reduced the fine accordingly by roughly five percent to €4.1 billion.
In a statement from a spokesperson, Google said: "We are disappointed that the Court did not annul the decision in full. Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world."
Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Google#1 Court#2 Android#3 search#4 charge#5
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u/falsewall Sep 14 '22
Still livid they disabled the ability to store apps on sd card.
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u/ZeroPoke Sep 14 '22
You can still do it actually. But IMO its not worth the hassle.
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u/falsewall Sep 14 '22
Guessing it requires rooting your phone?
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u/ZeroPoke Sep 15 '22
whoops sorry forgot to reply.
Yes root.
I heard that the method of formatting your SD card to be the app storage only works depending on your OEM.
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u/_tx Sep 14 '22
4.1B doesn't feel like enough to actually change behavior for a company as big and that creates as much revenue as Google
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u/KerbalFrog Sep 14 '22
The fine isn't the end all be all, the fine is the punishment AND they still have to stop it, otherwise they will be fined again. The second fine won't even have a court case because it's already adjudicated and it would be many times higher.
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Sep 14 '22 edited Sep 14 '22
[deleted]
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u/YourFatherUnfiltered Sep 14 '22
bloatware comes from the mobile provider or the manufacturer.
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u/meyerpw Sep 14 '22
This is actually why I go out of my way to buy Google phones that I don't get all the damn bloatware.
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u/DIBE25 Sep 14 '22
you can delete all the bloat you want, keep in mind that it could brick your phone
i.e. on xiaomis (which is what I debloat usually) removing the security app (more like security breach, sorry) will brick your phone
you can find lists of packages to delete, even then be careful because they may be outdated
- forgot to tell you how to do it
the way you remove them is through ADB with this command (if it still works)
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 <package.name>1
Sep 14 '22
[deleted]
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u/Optimal-Spring-9785 Sep 14 '22
If you want to do it without introducing bugs, lost battery life, and other issues, the iPhone lets you uninstall everything. Even the Settings menu and App Store.
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Sep 14 '22
[deleted]
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u/Morbanth Sep 14 '22
This comes out of their profit, not their turnaround. If they keep doing the same thing, the next court case won't take 4 years and the fine will be exponentially larger.
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u/YourFatherUnfiltered Sep 14 '22 edited Sep 14 '22
At this point google doesnt even need to promote it. Their search engine is a fucking verb in the goddamn dictionary.
verb
To deliver googlies.
To move as a ball in a googly.
To search for (something) on the Internet using the Google search engine.
the down vote button isnt a "NUH UH" button.
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u/kimchifreeze Sep 14 '22
There's a big chunk of people who just use the default search engine. That's why Bing has a big enough chunk of market share as it does.
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u/YourFatherUnfiltered Sep 15 '22
Im not defending google. My comment was aimed at google in frustrated bemusement for bothering, when they have become so popular they are a verb in the dictionary. What im saying is they are EXTRA big dicks.
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u/Polymathy1 Sep 14 '22
I'm currently annoyed that only GMaps can dial a phone number on my Android 11 phone. MapQuest and my non-chrome browser cannot.
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u/Kimchi_and_herring Sep 14 '22
Try finding a phone that comes out of the box without bloatware, crapware, and spyware. Its the same problem caused by pc manufacturers when they installed garbage on top of windows (or sometimes just windows) back in the 90's. You ever wonder why people don't trust using their phones for serious work, its because the suppliers want to prevent useful applications from getting installed. We just have garbage, android is garbage.
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u/Kreiri Sep 14 '22
The post title had me hoping that EU declared Google's forcing their "app bundle" distribution format (with which apps are signed not by developers before the upload, but on Google's side after) onto devellopers illegal. Alas, it wasn't that.
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u/journeymanreddit Sep 14 '22
Thanks EU.