4hw.com.cn: according to the Wall Street report on July 18, according to people familiar with the matter, Google faces 4.3 billion euros of EU fines for Android system problems, exceeding the record of 2.42 billion euros in June last year, making it the largest penalty in EU history.
Margrethe vestager, EU competition commissioner, will hold a press conference on Google's fines at 1pm local time in Brussels to end the EU's investigation into Google's contract with smartphone manufacturers.
Prior to that, Margrethe vestager had been investigating Google for up to three years on suspicion of illegally forcing smartphone manufacturers to install their apps:
Google offers Android Software free of charge to handset makers, but bundles it with an 'exclusive agreement'. If mobile phone manufacturers want to use the Google play store, they must install Google's browser and search engine.
The EU believes that some restrictions on the Android operating system are illegal. As consumers move from desktops to mobile devices, these restrictions are said to consolidate Google's dominance in online search.
In June last year, after seven years of investigation, the European Union issued a record 2.42 billion euros antitrust fine to Google, and hinted that more efforts would be made to investigate Google in the future.
This time, the European Union issued a huge ticket to Google, which is also considered to be the most significant measure in the eight-year anti-monopoly struggle between the European Union and Google.
Bloomberg pointed out that more important than the huge amount of money, the EU may issue a corresponding decree to allow mobile phone manufacturers to install non google apps on Android phones.
This will directly hit Google's core strategy in the past 10 years - more than 80% of the world's smartphones use Android operating system; in Europe, more than 90% of Android device app downloads come from Google play store. The system is critical to Google's future revenue.
Google uses Android to push its services to billions of users, including applications such as youtube, Google maps and app mall. Once Google's pre installed applications are weakened, it may shake the core business of the search giant.
Google has previously denied wrongdoing by bundling search with the Google play app store so that it can offer a full range of services free of charge, as well as a wide range of choices for Smartphone manufacturers and users.