Europe Union fines Google 5 Billions

Google was hit with a $5 billion fine from the European Commission over Android app bundling yesterday. While the fine is the biggest the EU has ever levied against a single company, it’s the changes to Android that Google now has to make that are far more significant. But they’re probably too little, too late.

Google will now be forced to unbundle its Chrome browser and Google search apps from Android, meaning phone makers won’t have to ship Android phones with these apps preinstalled. Additionally, phone makers will be able to fork the open-source version of Android and still be allowed to also manufacture devices with Google’s Android software, so we could see more competitive variants of Android from big phone makers. Google would never do all of this of its own accord, of course, but it has no choice. It stands accused of using anti-competitive practices with Android to boost its own range of web services.

Android Times Square billboard

The European Commission’s case is focused on the rules that Android phone makers are forced to follow by Google. And to better understand those, you need to know that Android comes in two distinct flavors. The first is the core Android software, better known as the Android Open-Source Project, or AOSP. This has few restrictions and phone makers can basically do what they like with it, installing whatever apps and services before shipping phones to customers.

But most phone makers don’t ship devices with AOSP outside of China because they want to get access to the Google Play Store (which is necessary for getting pretty much every popular app from Uber to Instagram). And if you want the Google Play Store, you have to follow Google’s own rules. These force phone makers to bundle 11 Google apps, including Google search, Chrome, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Maps. This bundling also means many top Android apps simply won’t work on AOSP as it doesn’t include the all-important Google APIs. Basically, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: if phone makers want to offer users the apps they expect from a smartphone, then they have to also include Google’s products.

Of the 11 apps Android phone makers have to preinstall, the EU is specifically worried about two: Google search and the Chrome browser. There’s good reason to focus on these. Google has more than 90 percent of the search engine market share worldwide and around 60 percent of browser market share. Android accounts for around 85 percent of the entire smartphone market, and Google’s bundling of Chrome and Google search into the OS is clearly designed to maintain those monopolies.