As EUROPE announced on 5 July (see EUROPE 12056), Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, is expected to return her decision concerning Google in the 'Android' case on Wednesday 18 July. According to the press agency AFP, the level of the fine the Commission is preparing to announce is likely to run to several billion euro.
Readers may recall that this case dates back to 20 April 2016 (see EUROPE 11536), when the Commission sent a statement of objections to the US giant, accusing it of abusing its dominant position in mobile telephony.
In particular, the letter levelled charges of forcing manufacturers of mobile telephones wishing to pre-install Google Play Store, the Google app shop for Android (the latter a programme developed by Google), to pre-install Google Search as the device's default search engine.
Vestager's decision is highly anticipated, particularly as the level of the fine is “expected to smash the current record”, AFP adds. This record, incidentally, is also held by Google, which was fined €2.42 billion over the 'Google Shopping' affair on 27 June 2017 (see EUROPE 11817). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)