Bulletin: European Commission Fines Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC EUR4.34B For Anticompetitive Android Practices; Ratings Unaffected

SAN FRANCISCO (S&P Global Ratings) July 18, 2018--S&P Global Ratings today said that its ratings and outlook on Mountain View, Calif.-based global technology provider Alphabet Inc. are unaffected by the European Commission's (EC's) €4.34 billion fine against Alphabet subsidiary Google LLC. The fine stems from the EC's finding that certain of Google's business practices surrounding the Android mobile operating system violated European Union antitrust rules. The EC determined Google illegally impeded competition through several means: by requiring mobile device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition of licensing the Play Store; by making payments to manufactures and wireless carriers on the condition that they pre-install Google Search on their devices; and by preventing manufacturers who pre-install Google

...SAN FRANCISCO (S&P Global Ratings) July 18, 2018--S&P Global Ratings today said that its ratings and outlook on Mountain View, Calif.-based global technology provider Alphabet Inc. are unaffected by the European Commission's (EC's) 4.34 billion fine against Alphabet subsidiary Google LLC. The fine stems from the EC's finding that certain of Google's business practices surrounding the Android mobile operating system violated European Union antitrust rules. The EC determined Google illegally impeded competition through several means: by requiring mobile device manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition of licensing the Play Store; by making payments to manufactures and wireless carriers on the condition that they pre-install Google Search on their devices; and by preventing manufacturers who pre-install Google apps on their devices from installing competing versions of Android on those devices. Google must stop this conduct within 90 days or face additional fines...

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