Friday, September 25, 2015

The United States launched an investigation against Google for Android – RBC

Google has caught the eye of antitrust US technology corporations are suspected of limiting the access of competitors to belong to her operating system (OS) Android, Bloomberg said, citing unnamed sources. According to the agency, the Federal Trade Commission (Federal Trade Commission, FTC) reached an agreement with the US Department of Justice to initiate investigations against OS Android. Officials from the FTC met with an unnamed company, which said that Google, which owns the operating system Android, giving priority status to its own services, limiting competing, writes Bloomberg.

The investigation is at the beginning and could end without charges , said Bloomberg. For example, two years ago, started earlier FTC closed an investigation into the search business Google: investigation lasted from 2011, but the charges corporation and did not show. Then the chairman of the department explained that against Google was unable to gather sufficient evidence.

However, there were cases when the investigation against Google ended in fines. So, one of the latest claims by the FTC to the corporation was the accusation that Google unfairly collect money from consumers for the purchase of built-in applications. This opportunity came in the Google Play store in 2011, and after starting the FTC suspect Google’s cheating money without asking for specific confirmation from the users according to representatives of FTC, this has led to the fact that the Corporation wrote off millions of dollars of purchases made children without the knowledge of parents . In late 2014, Google has pledged to compensate customers of at least $ 19 million.

by Reuters in April 2015, wrote that several companies complained to Google in the US Justice Department, saying that the Android OS is used by limiting competition in the market for mobile applications. Antitrust investigations in the United States – home for Google market – may be a serious risk to the corporation, then the Agency indicated. According to the financial statements of Google for 2014 in the US market accounted for 43% of revenues of the corporation – a little more than $ 28 billion of the total $ 66 billion.

Android OS is the leading operating system on mobile devices in the United States. According to research firm IDC, in the second quarter of 2015. 59% of all smartphones in the United States to work on Android. Attributable to Apple system iOS ranked second with a share of 38%.

not the first time

A similar US investigation against Android OS is conducted in the European Union in 2013 year. Witness the case of restriction of competition and the creation of unequal conditions, in particular, extends the Russian Internet company “Yandex”. In April 2015 the European Commission (EC) announced the start of a formal process in this investigation, which may lead to a charge of violating anti-trust regulation. In particular, the EC focuses on evidence that Google associates manufacturers of smartphones and tablets contracts binding pre-install its mobile services on an exclusive basis. As a consequence – in such contracts meant a ban for manufacturers to preset service competitors and downloading modified and potentially competing versions of Android mobile devices.

The European Commission representative, Ricardo Cardoso declined to comment, cooperating if the EC with US regulators in the investigation against Google , noting that the European investigation continues.

In Russia, a similar investigation lasted from the beginning of 2015, when the “Yandex” has filed a complaint against the Russian Internet company then pointed out that Google is including the prohibition of smartphone manufacturers preinstall on mobile device services “Yandex”, as an example of the failure of manufacturers Explay, Prestigio and Fly-cooperation.

In September, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) recognized that Google is abusing its dominant position, dictating manufacturers of smartphones certain conditions when installing the app store Google Play. In particular, they have been pre-set with the Google Play applications, products and services from the package Google Mobile Services (applications Play Store, Google Maps, Gmail, Drive, YouTube, Hangouts and browser Chrome), place the icons of the applications on the first screen of the mobile device and set the default search for Google. Now, the American Internet giant faces a fine of from 1 to 15% of revenue Google Play store in Russia, the amount of punishment will be determined in October.

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