Google is broadly anticipated to be handed a 3rd antitrust positive in Europe this week, with stories suggesting the European Commission’s resolution in its long-running investigation of AdSense may land later at present.
Right on cue the search big has PRed one other Android product tweak — which it payments as “supporting choice and competition in Europe”.
In the approaching months Google says it can begin prompting customers of present and new Android units in Europe to ask which browser and search apps they want to use.
This follows licensing adjustments for Android in Europe which Google introduced final fall, following the Commission’s $5BN antitrust positive for anti-competitive conduct associated to the way it operates the dominant smartphone OS.
tl;dr competitors regulation can shift coverage and product.
Albeit, the satan shall be within the element of Google’s self-imposed ‘remedy’ for Android browser and search apps.
Which means how precisely the person is prompted shall be key — given tech giants are well-versed within the manipulative arts of darkish sample design, enabling them to create ‘consent’ flows that ship their desired end result.
A ‘choice’ designed in such a manner — based mostly on wording, button/textual content dimension and shade, timing of immediate and so forth — to advertise Google’s most well-liked browser and search app alternative by subtly encouraging Android customers to stay with its default apps could not truly find yourself being a lot of a ‘choice’.
According to Reuters the immediate will floor to Android customers by way of the Play Store. (Though the model of Google’s weblog publish we learn didn’t embody that element.)
Using the Play Store for the immediate would require an Android gadget to have Google’s app retailer pre-loaded — and licensing tweaks made to the OS in Europe final 12 months had been supposedly meant to allow OEMs to decide on to unbundle Google apps from Android forks. Ergo making solely the Play Store the route for enabling alternative could be somewhat contradictory. (As effectively as spotlighting Google’s continued grip on Android.)
Add to that Google has the benefit of large model dominance right here, because of its kingpin place in search, browsers and smartphone platforms.
So once more the buyer resolution is weighted in its favor. Or, to place it one other manner: ‘This is Google; it will probably afford to supply a ‘choice’.’
In its weblog publish getting out forward of the Commission’s looming AdSense ruling, Google’s SVP of worldwide affairs, Kent Walker, writes that the corporate has been “listening carefully to the feedback we’re getting” vis-a-vis competitors.
Though the search big is definitely interesting each antitrust choices. (The different being a $2.7BN positive it obtained slapped with two years in the past for selling its personal procuring comparability service and demoting rivals’.)
“After the Commission’s July 2018 decision, we changed the licensing model for the Google apps we build for use on Android phones, creating new, separate licenses for Google Play, the Google Chrome browser, and for Google Search,” Walker continues. “In doing so, we maintained the freedom for phone makers to install any alternative app alongside a Google app.”
Other opinions can be found on these adjustments too.
Such as French pro-privacy Google search rival Qwant, which final 12 months informed us how these licensing adjustments nonetheless make it basically inconceivable for smartphone makers to revenue off of units that don’t bake in Google apps by default. (More not too long ago Qwant’s founder condensed the state of affairs to “it’s a joke“.)

Qwant and one other European startup Jolla, which leads growth of an Android different smartphone platform known as Sailfish — and can also be a contest complainant in opposition to Google in Europe — need regulators to step in and do extra.
The Commission has mentioned it’s carefully monitoring adjustments made by Google to find out whether or not or not the corporate has complied with its orders to cease anti-competitive conduct.
So the jury continues to be out on whether or not any of its tweaks sum to compliance. (Google says so however that’s as you’d anticipate — and positively doesn’t imply the Commission will agree.)
In its Android resolution final summer season the Commission judged that Google’s practices harmed competitors and “further innovation” within the wider cell house, i.e. past Internet search — as a result of it prevented different cell browsers from competing successfully with its pre-installed Chrome browser.
So browser alternative is a key part right here. And ‘effective competition’ is the bar Google’s homebrew ‘remedies’ must meet.
Still, the corporate shall be hoping its newest Android tweaks steer off additional Commission antitrust motion. Or not less than generate extra fuzz and gas for its long-game authorized enchantment.
Current EU competitors commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has flagged for years that the division can also be fielding complaints about different Google merchandise, together with journey search, picture search and maps. Which suggests Google may face recent antitrust investigations in future, even because the final of the primary batch is about to wrap up.
The FT stories that Android customers within the European financial space final week began seeing hyperlinks to rival web sites showing above Google’s reply field for searches for merchandise, jobs or companies — with the rival hyperlinks showing above paid outcomes hyperlinks to Google’s personal companies.
The newspaper factors out that tweak is just like a change promoted by Google in 2013, when it was making an attempt to resolve EU antitrust considerations below the prior commissioner, Joaquín Almunia.
However rivals on the time complained the tweak was inadequate. The Commission subsequently agreed — and below Vestager’s tenure went on to hit Google with antitrust fines.
Walker doesn’t point out these any of extra antitrust complaints swirling round Google’s enterprise in Europe, selecting to give attention to highlighting adjustments it’s made in response to the 2 extant Commission antitrust rulings.
“After the Commission’s July 2018 decision, we changed the licensing model for the Google apps we build for use on Android phones, creating new, separate licenses for Google Play, the Google Chrome browser, and for Google Search. In doing so, we maintained the freedom for phone makers to install any alternative app alongside a Google app,” he writes.
Nor does he make point out of a latest change Google quietly made to the lists of default search engine decisions in its Chrome browser — which expanded the “choice” he claims the corporate provides by surfacing extra rivals. (The greatest beneficiary of that tweak is privateness search rival DuckDuckGo, which abruptly obtained added to the Chrome search engine lists in round 60 markets. Qwant additionally obtained added as a default alternative in France.)
Talking about Android particularly Walker as an alternative takes a refined oblique swipe at iOS maker Apple — which now finds itself the goal of competitors complaints in Europe, by way of music streaming rival Spotify, and is doubtlessly going through a Commission probe of its personal (albeit, iOS’ marketshare in Europe is tiny vs Android). So prime deflecting Google.
“On Android phones, you’ve always been able to install any search engine or browser you want, irrespective of what came pre-installed on the phone when you bought it. In fact, a typical Android phone user will usually install around 50 additional apps on their phone,” Walker writes, drawing consideration to the truth that Apple doesn’t supply iOS customers as a lot of a literal alternative as Google does.
“Now we’ll also do more to ensure that Android phone owners know about the wide choice of browsers and search engines available to download to their phones,” he provides, saying: “This will involve asking users of existing and new Android devices in Europe which browser and search apps they would like to use.”
We’ve reached out to Commission for remark, and to Google with questions concerning the design of its incoming browser and search app prompts for Android customers in Europe and can replace this report with any response.