EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practices, fine expected

Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by mtgx on Saturday October 01, 2016 @11:44AM (#12618312)

Has the EU even addressed the issue where Google bans all ad-blocking apps from its store? Seems like a pretty open and shut "we're doing this because we have near-monopoly on the smartphone market and ad-blocking hurts our business" anti-trust case.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by muninn_ on Saturday October 01, 2016 @11:58AM (#12618390)

Do they?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.adblockplu...

I don't use Android (nor any Google product besides search) but I'm pretty sure you can get ad blockers on Android.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by anonymousab on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:07PM (#12618433)

They block applications that interfere with the operation of other applications.

This would include an ad blocker that blocks ads in, say, a free game, or the built in Chrome browser.

The common workaround was to run connections through a VPN and your ad blocking happens there. I'm not sure if they started cracking down on that as well.

Having apps that modify other apps can certainly be desired behavior, but it's clear why there would be legitimate concerns about customer security in allowing apps that can do so.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by JustSomeNobody on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:44PM (#12618638)

Don't other platforms block apps that either are too close to existing functionality or interfere with the operations of the builtin apps?

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by muninn_ on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:29PM (#12618541)

Sure I was just pointing out that they do exist at least as far as I could tell.

On iOS I use Focus and Safari and that has been pretty good for me. Obviously that's not something that would work on Android.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by ethanbond on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:22PM (#12618505)

So... why is it possible?

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by tarancato on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:24PM (#12618517)

There are three approaches:

1. Create a browser with ad blocking builtin or possible with addons (like Firefox).

2. Create a local proxy that blocks ads, and make the user configure it as the system proxy.

3. Require root privileges and do whatever you want (2, or maybe change /etc/hosts, like AdAway does). Yes, there are tons of apps in the Play Store that only work with root. Google never cared much about them.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by Sylos on Saturday October 01, 2016 @01:36PM (#12618929)

They do, yes. What you've linked is a browser with ad-blocking capabilities, which is treated a bit differently. What they remove are ad-blockers which block ads in other apps.

And you can still get them on Android, but not via the Play Store. You have to go through third-party stores such as F-Droid, Aptoide or Amazon (or just directly download the installer-file off of a webpage).

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/03/13/breaking-google-has-...

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by bckygldstn on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:10PM (#12618447)

Chrome for Android doesn't allow browser extensions, possibly to prevent adblockers from being used. But that's a separate issue.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by bobbyi_settv on Saturday October 01, 2016 @11:53AM (#12618357)

I'm not seeing how that's anti-competitive. Doesn't stopping ad blockers help other advertisers and networks just as much as it helps Google?

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by neximo64 on Saturday October 01, 2016 @12:03PM (#12618418)

In your view are Apple's app store promotions fair? They're the only one allowed to distribute apps.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by RushAndAPush on Saturday October 01, 2016 @01:56PM (#12619034)

Why would this bring up an anti-trust case. It doesn't make any sense.

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Re:EU wants Google to stop anti-competitive Android practice... by spiralpolitik on Saturday October 01, 2016 @02:53PM (#12619325)

Google has majority share in the EU smartphone market. They are using that majority share to extend/maintain their dominance in the search space by forcing OEM to license their applications.

The EU regulators view the OS and Google apps as two seperate spheres.

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