According to reports, people familiar with the matter said today that the European Union’s General Court, the 2nd-highest court in Europe, will hold a five-day hearing on September 27 to hear Google’s Android appeal. In July 2018, the European Commission announced an antitrust fine of 4.34 billion euros (US$5.15 billion) on Google. The European Commission stated that since 2011, Google has imposed some illegal restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile operators by virtue of its dominant position in the Internet search market.
Specifically, Android device manufacturers are required to pre-install the Google Search App and Chrome browser as a condition for authorizing the Google Play Store application store; to pay specific large-scale Android device manufacturers and mobile operators to require them to exclusively pre-install the Google Search App; Prevent device manufacturers with pre-installed Google apps from selling pre-installed “forked” Android smart devices.
Currently, about 80% of smartphones in the world are equipped with the Android system that device manufacturers use for free. Due to the market power of Android, this case is the most important of the three EU antitrust cases against Google. In the past ten years, the EU has issued more than US$8 billion in antitrust fines against Google.
People familiar with the matter said today that the Android appeal hearing will begin on September 27, and Google is trying to persuade the judge to overturn the European Commission’s fine. In this regard, Google has not yet responded to the reporter’s request for comment. The Luxembourg-based “General Court of Justice of the European Union” stated that since the date of the hearing has not yet been made public, it cannot confirm the specific time of the hearing.
In this case, Google received the lobbying group “Application Developers Alliance” (ADA), Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Android device manufacturer Gigaset Communications GmbH, Nokia mobile phone brand exclusive licensing company HMD Global, and Norway Support from the technology company Opera Software.
The European Commission is supported by the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), the German publishing groups VDZ and BDZV, the Czech search engine Seznam, the lobby group FairSearch, and the French search engine Qwant.
