Like you I do potentially have a problem with the second point - depending on the details. I think Google has good technical reasons to take measures to prevent fragmentation of Android. Incompatible ecosystems arising would have very real negative consequences for the very competition that the EU is trying to protect. (as in, the only reason there IS competition amongst Android OEMs is because there IS an OS with strong compatibility protections). What I don't think they can do is level those protections at a whole company level - you can't say "Acer can't make a variant of Android if they are also shipping a phone with Google Services". Now I would be OK with it if there's real potential for harm to the ecosystem - if Acer is shipping the phones which are incompatible and claiming they run "Android", for example. But if they clearly fork it as a separate OS, put out their own SDK with separate APIs etc. then Google has no business telling them not to do it. So even this one I could go either way on depending on the exact details of the circumstances.
Re:EU hits Google with second antitrust charge
by zmmmmm on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @07:20PM
(#11538462)
I don't really have a problem with Google giving incentives for exclusivity of Google Search on devices. As long as that's voluntary for carriers / OEMs to enter into and other search alternatives have the same opportunity then that's just business. In a way I would see it as more of a problem if Google was requiring it without giving incentives. That would be evidence of an abuse of market power.
The other two points are problematic because they apply restrictions to business decisions the manufacturer can deliver independent of how those offerings do or do not rely on the ecosystem Google developed and are therefore Google leveraging its business position to reduce consumer choice in its favor.