Google hit with biggest EU antitrust fine ever

The European Union ruled Wednesday that Google must pay $5 billion for stifling competition in the mobile app market. The tech giant required mobile phone producers to pre-install its search and browser apps as a condition for licensing Google’s app store. It also paid some companies to exclusively pre-install the Google search app. The EU fine is the largest it has ever imposed on a company for anti-competitive behavior. Google CEO Sundar Pichai argued that Google helps mobile phone competition by providing its Android operating system for use across numerous devices, while its main competitor, Apple, only allows its software on devices it makes. “Today, because of Android, there are more than 24,000 devices, at every price point, from more than 1,300 different brands,” Pichai wrote on Google’s blog.