A number caused the biggest stir in this case.

The EU Commission imposed a cartel fine of 4.34 billion euros on the American digital company Google in July 2018 for abusing its market power in the case of the Android smartphone operating system and thus violating EU competition law.

To date, this is the highest fine in a single cartel case.

The total amount that Google had to pay in three EU proceedings is now more than eight billion euros.

These are no longer peanuts for Google either.

Werner Mussler

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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But the fine is not the main reason why the company has sued the Commission's decisions in all cases.

He sees his business model at risk.

As is well known, this consists of offering a large number of practical services free of charge, but in return for collecting data about the users and displaying advertising on this basis.

The Commission's decision contained several conditions that call this business model into question.

Hearing for days

This Monday, more than three years after the decision, the competent court of the European Union in Luxembourg opened the Android proceedings with a hearing. It should last the whole week. This unusually long time indicates that the judges have many questions - to the Commission, to Google and to its competitors, who have formed the FairSearch interest group and have often complained about Google in Brussels. Only those who are familiar with all the details of the case and its legal pitfalls will be able to follow the hearing.

The EU competition watchdogs justified their decision in 2018 with a core allegation: Google had abused its market power in the markets for search engines and for smartphone and tablet operating systems requiring a license and its smartphone operating system Android was only available to manufacturers of Android smartphones and mobile network operators under anti-competitive conditions Provided. The cartel watchdogs complained that Google was forcing the manufacturers of Android devices to preinstall the Google Chrome browser and set its search engine as the default. Furthermore, Google has lured the providers of cellular networks with financial incentives if they only preinstall Google services. Google should stop all of these practices.

In principle, the group has challenged all arguments of the EU Commission. It begins with the question of whether Google even dominates the market, which market definition is the right one. Android has a market share of more than 80 percent in the market for smartphone operating systems. Is that crucial? Google refers to the obvious competitor Apple with its iOS smartphones. There is vital competition in that market. The Commission fails to understand how many choices Android smartphone manufacturers, mobile network operators, app developers and consumers offer. The commission contradicts: The relevant market is not the smartphone market, but that for licensable operating systems. Apple's iOS is not licensed, but only integrated into Apple devices.

And is it lawful that Google is forcing manufacturers such as Samsung and Huawei to preinstall the Google Search search engine and the Google Chrome browser?

The group denies this with the argument that any user can download competing products.

The Commission countered that most smartphone users used those products that were already preinstalled.

This is exactly why Google is forcing manufacturers to pre-install.

Google denies the allegations

The group also denies that the financial incentives for providers of wireless networks are anti-competitive.

Competitors do not conclude these contracts from the market.

The Commission says the opposite.

As is often the case in such cases, the litigation now being negotiated is a kind of rearguard battle. Because Google had to meet the commission requirements within 90 days in 2018, otherwise fines of up to 15 million euros would have threatened daily; the action against the Commission's decision did nothing to change that. The company announced in October 2018 that everything was done that was necessary. The "solution" to the dispute should consist in the fact that the manufacturers of Android devices would no longer be forced to preinstall the Google applications. For this, they would have to pay license fees when they install the apps.

The Commission did not like this idea very much. And regardless of that, the competition watchdogs are still struggling with enforcing the 2018 requirements. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in May that her agency was “working hard” to ensure that the concessions offered by Google would take effect. FairSearch attorney Thomas Vinje says the group has not implemented the requirements even three years after the commission's decision. "This enabled Google to further increase its illegal profits, at the expense of competitors and consumers." The Google Android process is a typical example of why the EU Commission wants digital companies to prohibit certain types of behavior in advance, including what are known as "digital markets." Act "proposed. Because no matter how the Luxembourg procedure ends,it will be years before that happens. This then only has a limited impact on the market.