Google Criticizes EU Regulators for Ignoring Apple in Bid to Get $5.1 Billion Antitrust Fine Annulled

Google today lambasted European Union regulators for ignoring Apple and the rivalry between Apple and Android in the antitrust accusations that have been levied against Google, reports Reuters.

Apple was brought up as part of Google's attempt to get a massive 4.34 billion euro ($5.1 billion) fine annulled. The European Commission first levied the fine against Google in 2018 because Google pre-installed its own services (Google Search and the Chrome browser) on Android to ensure its dominance in internet search.

According to Google, the European Commission has ignored the dynamic between Apple and Google and has downplayed the impact that Apple has on the mobile device market.

"The Commission shut its eyes to the real competitive dynamic in this industry, that between Apple and Android," Google's lawyer Meredith Pickford told the court.

"By defining markets too narrowly and downplaying the potent constraint imposed by the highly powerful Apple, the Commission has mistakenly found Google to be dominant in mobile operating systems and app stores, when it was in fact a vigorous market disrupter," he said.

Google is actually an "exceptional success story of the power of competition in action," Google's lawyers said.

The European Commission argued that "bringing Apple into the picture doesn't change things very much" because Apple and Google pursue different models and because Apple has a smaller market share. Android is installed on approximately 80 percent of the smartphones in the world.

Google is continuing to fight the fine, and a verdict on whether the fine will need to be paid is expected in 2022.

The European Union is planning on implementing sweeping legal measures that would require tech companies to share data with competitors and give no preference to their own apps and services, legislation that would impact both Apple and Google.

It would require Apple to allow iPhone and iPad users to download apps from third-party App Stores or from the internet, and Apple has been fighting against it. Apple CEO Tim Cook said earlier this year that the upcoming rules could "destroy the security" of the iPhone.