The European Commission is geared up to impose a fine of $11 billion on Google in a second anti-trust case of abusing its dominance via Android mobile operating system, according to a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday.
The EU investigation has found that Google imposed illegal terms on Android device makers which harmed competition and cut consumer choice.
Google’s Android OS is used in more than 80 percent of the world’s smartphones and is vital to the group’s future revenues as more users search on their mobile gadgets.
The EU began the anti-trust case in 2016, accusing Google of imposing licensing conditions for the Android OS. Google could be fined up to $11 billion but the actual penalty may be less.
In 2017, EU antitrust investigators fined Google $2.7 billion for violations pertaining to its treatment of comparison shopping services.
Google later introduced changes in how it compares shopping offers in its search results.
European regulators have in the past investigated Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
