Google appeals the record fine for Android

Google on Tuesday appealed a record fine of 4.34 billion euros imposed by the EU in July for its dominant operating system for Android smartphones, the US group said.

"We have appealed against the decision of the European Commission on Android, before the Court of the European Union," said the spokesman for Google Al Verney, in an email sent to AFP.

The amount of this fine had broken all records. It punished the US company for abusing the dominant position of Android, its free operating system for smartphones, to establish the supremacy of its online search service.

In July, the European Commission ordered the American company "to put an end to its illegal practices within 90 days, on pain of being penalized by up to 5% of Alphabet's global average daily turnover", the parent company of Google.

In June 2017, the company had already been condemned by the European Commission to pay a fine of 2.42 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in online research by promoting its price comparison "Google Shopping", at the expense of competing services.

Android - operating system used for 80% of devices in Europe and around the world, which is the equivalent of the iOS for the Apple iPhone - has been in the sights of the European Commission for several years.

In July, the European Commission accused the Californian group of requiring manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search application and its browser (Chrome) as a condition of licensing the online application store (Play). Store). The Commission also accused it of having paid some major manufacturers and some major mobile network operators to pre-install the Google Search app exclusively on their devices. Finally, it accused Google of preventing manufacturers wishing to preinstall Google applications to sell even one smart mobile device running on other versions of Android not approved by Google.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced in July that the group would appeal his conviction.

The appeal could take years to be judged by European justice.

The General Court of the European Union, composed of at least one judge per Member State, is one of the two courts of the Court of Justice of the European Union, with its seat in Luxembourg.