Users of Android phones in Europe will be actively asked in the future if they want to install other browsers or search engines.
Because Google Search and Chrome are set by default as a search engine and browser, the dominance of these two Google products is too great, according to the European Commission. According to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, Google smartphone manufacturers have imposed illegal restrictive conditions since 2011.
Google demanded that manufacturers install browser Chrome and search engine Google Search on their smartphones and tablets to give users access to the Google Play app store. This gave Google an unfair advantage over competitors.
Substantial fine due to unfair competition
In 2018, Google was fined more than 4.3 billion euros for unfair competition with the Android operating system.
“Less than 1 percent of users go to an app store to download another search app,” Vestager said at the time. “Most smartphone owners continue to use the software that comes as standard.”
About 80 percent of all mobile devices currently run on Android.
