Why the EU’s Google crackdown affects anyone buying an Android phone

GOOGLE'S record £3.8billion fine from the EU is designed to help everyday phone users – but it might do more harm than good.

The ruling forces Google to remove popular apps from new smartphones, so you'll have to go out of your way to download them all over again.

Part of the European Comission's problem with Google is its huge market dominance.

Around 80% of smartphones run on Google's Android mobile software, beating everyone else (Apple included) by miles.

The EU reckons Google has been abusing this, by forcing people who want to make Android phones to install Google's other services too.

Anyone can make an Android phone – but if they want the Google Play app store, they need to follow the rules.

These rules include installing several Google apps, including Google Chrome, Google Search and YouTube.

And Google also recommends (but doesn't force) phone makers to install other Google apps too. Apps like Google Photos, Google Drive and Google Maps.

This makes the EU angry, because it says Google is using its smartphone dominance to flog its other services – and shut everyone else out.

But the EU's decision is years late: everyone loves Google Chrome and YouTube, and would miss them if they disappeared.

This bull-in-a-china-shop ruling means that Google now has 90 days to stop forcing phone makers to include its services.

If all goes to plan, your next Android phone might not come with any of Google's top apps.

So if you want Google Chrome or YouTube, you'd have to download them manually – something non tech-savvy users might not even know how to do.

It could also mean your current Android phone might be required to uninstall the Google apps, and give you the choice of downloading them again.

Some phone makers may use this as an opportunity to push their own rubbish versions of Google's apps, too.

Android phones of the future may come missing Google's finest, and instead be pre-loaded with terrible apps that just don't get the job done.

And people who aren't great with tech may simply think that their expensive new blower is simply bad.

But EU competitions boss Margrethe Vestager thinks its ruling is good news for users.

"Our case is about three types of restrictions that Google has imposed on Android device manufacturers and network operators to ensure that traffic on Android devices goes to the Google search engine," explained Vestager.

"In this way, Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine.

"These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere.

"This is illegal under EU antitrust rules."

She's right, but the EU should've done something about this years ago.

Today, 95% of searches on Android phones are made with Google.

That's not massively different from Google's 90.3% hold on search engine queries in general.

Google is the dominant way to find information on the internet, and that's partly because it was allowed to push its own goods.

But it's also because Google services are ruddy brilliant, and get you what you need quickly – without faff.

The EU is simply too late to make a meaningful impact on this, so its shotgun ruling will only punish people buying new Android phones.

Do you think the EU's fine was a bit pointless? Let us know in the comments!

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