US giant Google announced in early August that it would charge its competitors via an auction system to meet the European Commission's obligation to offer different search engines on its operating system.
“We have seen in the past that a choice screen can be an effective way to promote user choice”, the Commission responded, saying it would closely monitor the implementation of this measure.
In the summer of 2018, the European Commission condemned Google for abusing its dominant position on the Android operating system by pre-installing Google Search as the default search engine (see EUROPE 12065/1). It imposed a record fine of €4.34 billion on the company and forced it to stop these tie-ins, which were considered illegal under EU competition rules.
Notice to the highest bidders. Google therefore intends to offer its users, from January 2020, configuration of their tablets or Android phones sold in Europe. On their first use, they will see a specific screen allowing them to choose a default search engine from four choices, including Google's which is pre-installed.
To select its competitors, Google announced that it would organize annual auctions by country. “Search engines will indicate the price they are willing to pay each time a user selects them”, said Google on an explanatory page on the Android site. Over a floor price, the three highest bids will appear in random order on the choice screen, alongside the native search engine. Each month, Google will send an invoice to its competitors, the amount of which will be calculated based on the number of users who have chosen it on this screen.
Competing search engines have until September 13 to submit their applications for auction, the results of which will be made public on October 31.
The Open Internet Project (OIP), a formal complainant in the Android case, immediately condemned the announcement: “The IPO condemns the fact that Google now expects its competitors to pay to be found and selected by users, as this only exchanges one abusive behaviour for another, while continuing to deprive consumers of real choice and distort competition”.
The European Commission, for its part, has not expressed any criticism. According to a spokesperson, the institution intends to closely monitor the implementation of this choice screen mechanism by listening to feedback from market players, “in particular in relation to the presentation and mechanics of the choice screen and to the selection mechanism of rival search providers”. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)