It's been over a year since Google announced a $2.1 billion dollar deal to take over Fitbit, but it's been sitting in regulatory purgatory since then while the European Commission investigated the acquisition's affect on consumers and competitors. Now it looks like the EU has come to a conclusion that will allow the merger to move forward — providing that Google adheres to a set of specific guidelines about data privacy.
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Google has faced a lot of scrutiny in Europe. Whether it's finding fault with Google being the default search provider on Android phones to considering a ban on face recognition in public spaces, the EU generally takes a very pro-consumer focus on things. Now a series of working documents have surfaced that indicate the European Commission is considering a number of proposals that affect big tech — including a requirement that users be allowed to remove any pre-installed applications on a device.
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Back in June, EU members agreed that their coronavirus tracing apps would need to be interoperable to make it easier to travel during the summer, hoping that this would help to trace contacts across borders to prevent a second wave. While that timeline hasn't quite worked out (summer holidays are over in most countries), the European Commission today has announced that it's finally setting up a standardized interoperability gateway for tracing apps.
Read MoreThe EU is hoping to enact its own "right to repair" for phones, tablets, and laptops in the region by 2021. Details are very sparse right now, and this goal only been revealed as one component of the so-called Circular Economy Action Plan, a part of the European Green Deal, a roadmap that hopes to make the region carbon neutral by 2050.
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Following the EU's record antitrust ruling against Google back in 2018, the European Commission asked the company to give Android users the option to set other search engines as default. That prompted Google to take the opportunity to make even more money by auctioning which companies to feature as default search engine providers. The winners have now been published, and it looks like privacy advocate DuckDuckGo and meta search engine Info.com have taken the crown across the continent.
Read MoreGoogle's ongoing European saga just saw a new development. After the record $5 billion antitrust fine issued by the European Commission last year, the company had to implement new screens to ask users if they wanted additional browsers and search engines on their devices, and now it's taking that one step further by making the search engine choice a default. However, as would any for-profit company do, it's using this as an opportunity to charge search providers that want to be featured.
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The European Commission has just issued a fine of €242 million to Qualcomm for allegedly anti-competitive actions made by the company circa 2009-2011. The commission claims that Qualcomm abused its market position by using predatory pricing to push out competitors, selling some of its chipsets at a loss to Huawei and ZTE.
Read More![[Update: Rolling out] Google introduces Android search and browser app choices for users in Europe](https://www.androidpolice.com/wp-content/themes/ap2/ap_resize/ap_resize.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F04%2Fandroid_choice_app_screen.max-1000x1000.png&w=728)
In the wake of the $5 billion antitrust fine it received from the European Commission last year, Google laid out plans to prompt Android users in Europe to choose a different default search or browser app. In a new blog post, Product Management Director Paul Gennai introduces the changes that will come as part of an imminent Google Play Store update.
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As a result of new European Commission rules around the transparency of online platforms, Google already outlined planned improvements to its developer relations and communication about Play Store policy compliance. However, there are wider implications for Google, Amazon, Facebook, and others as the rules governing digital practices were approved on Wednesday.
Read MoreJust this morning, we wrote about Google and the European Commission getting along, with Google proactively encouraging users to use other browsers and search engines than their own. Now, they're back at war. The Commission has fined Google €1.49 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules concerning AdSense.
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