Google criticizes EU regulators for ignoring Apple in an attempt to get $ 5.1 billion in overturned antitrust fine

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Google today harshly criticized EU regulators for ignoring Apple and the rivalry between Apple and Android in antitrust charges that have been leveled against Google, Reuters reports.

Apple was cited as part of Google’s attempt to get a massive € 4.34 billion ($ 5.1 billion) fine. The European Commission imposed the fine on Google for the first time in 2018 because Google pre-installed its services (Google Search and Chrome browser) on Android to secure its domain in Internet search.

According to Google, the European Commission ignored the dynamic between Apple and Google and downplayed the impact Apple has on the mobile device market.

“The Commission has turned a blind eye to the real competitive dynamic in this sector, the one between Apple and Android,” Google attorney Meredith Pickford told the court.

“By defining markets too narrowly and downplaying the powerful constraint imposed by the all-powerful Apple, the Commission wrongly assumed that Google was dominant in mobile operating systems and app stores, when in fact it was a vigorous market disruptor,” he said.

Google is actually an “outstanding success story of the power of competition in action,” Google’s lawyers said.

The European Commission has argued that “bringing Apple into the picture doesn’t change things much” because Apple and Google pursue different models and because Apple has a lower market share. Android is installed on around 80% of smartphones in the world.

Google is continuing to fight the fine and a verdict on the need to pay the fine is expected in 2022.

The European Union is planning to implement sweeping legal measures that would require tech companies to share data with competitors and not give preference to their own apps and services, legislation that would impact both Apple and Google.

It would require Apple to allow iPhone and iPad users to download apps from third-party App Store or the Internet, and Apple has fought against that. Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that the upcoming rules could “destroy the security” of the “iPhone”.

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