Google defends Android phone maker deals, denies carrot and stick tactics
Alphabet unit Google on Tuesday
said deals with Android phone
makers that landed it a record 4.3-billion-euro ($5 billion) antitrust fine
boosted competition and rejected EU charges they were a carrot-and-stick tactic
that stifled rivals.
Google was
addressing the second day of a week-long hearing as it tries to get Europe's
second-highest court to annul the fine and a European Commission order to make
it loosen its search engine grip on Android devices.
Lawyers for Google and the EU
competition executive clashed over the company's Mobile Application Distribution
Agreements (MADAs) that require phone makers (OEMs) to pre-install the Google
Search app and Chrome browser app in return for licensing Google Play for free.
"This licensing model is what attracted OEMs to the Android platform, and
what enabled those OEMs to offer a consistent and high-quality user experience
at the lowest possible price," Google's lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid told the
General Court.
"People use Google because they choose to, not because
they're forced to," he said.
Commission lawyer Carlos Urraca Caviedes rejected the argument,
calling the deals and other restrictions Google's carrot-and-stick policy
towards phone makers.
"These helped Google ensured its competitors would not
achieve critical mass to challenge its dominance," he told the court.
He also said such deals were unnecessary in view of the market
power of Google, the world's most popular internet search engine, and its
significant number of users.
Urraca Caviedes said what Google did "goes beyond what is
necessary to develop and maintain the Android platform".
A verdict may come next year. The case is T-604/18 Google vs
European Commission.
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