Google faces record $5B fine from EU over Android

America’s iPhone habit could end up helping Google, at least where antitrust fines are concerned.

The European Commission has now lobbed its two highest fines ever at Google – the latest for $5 billion over charges the tech giant exploits its Android operating system’s dominant position in the smartphone market.

Could Google face similar treatment here in the U.S.? Not likely, at least not anytime soon.

For a start, the U.S. smartphone market is quite different than Europe’s, where Android is king, giving regulators there more grounds to make their antitrust case. About 54 percent of U.S. smartphones operate on the Android operating system, while 45 percent run on Apple’s iOS, according to eMarketer.

In contrast, about 80 percent of smart mobile devices in Europe and worldwide run on Android, according to the commission.

And the EU’s antitrust regulators have emerged as tougher than the U.S. on industry consolidation and its effects on competition. The Federal Trade Commission has taken on Google in the past but with less onerous penalties. The FTC levied its highest fine of $22.5 million in 2012 for deploying “cookies” and targeted ads on users of the Safari internet browser, a violation of an earlier FTC settlement.

In another settlement with the FTC in 2013, Google agreed to adjust its business practices in search and mobile device patents to appease the agency’s charge of anti-competitive behavior in the search engine market.

Tech companies have, for the most part, sidestepped major antitrust punishments in the U.S. in recent years because tech giants tout the free services and lower-priced devices they deliver, says Marshall Steinbaum, research director at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank.

But the FTC, Justice Department and federal judges aren’t envisioning a big enough picture, he says, and are forgetting how allowing major tech players’ dominance stretches beyond current devices into the entire ecosystem.

After a three-year investigation, the European Commission charged Google with unfairly requiring smartphone and device makers to install its search engine and Chrome browser on Androidrun devices in order to also install the Google Play store app. Google gives phone manufacturers open-source Android software for free but generates revenue from advertising displayed in searches and on apps and the sale of apps and content.

The commission also said Google paid large manufacturers and wireless carriers to make the Google Search app the only preinstalled search app and required approval of any device running an alternate version of Android.

Google has 90 days to change its practices but plans to appeal the decision.

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