Google has received yet another extension in its brawl with the European Union and its regulators. The giant search company will now have until October 31st to answer the EU’s antitrust charges against Android.
Google was supposed to address the EU’s statement of objections as soon as this week, before getting a fourth extension. Now the company has until the end of the month to answer charges that it has abused its dominant market position with Android and discouraged competition. The European Union claims to have plenty of evidence showing Google forced devices makers to adopt its services, thus stifling competition and hurting European consumers.
In a leaked document obtained by Reuters over the weekend, the European Union’s regulators explained that Google will no longer be allowed to incentivize or discriminate against phone makers that want to adopt services not provided by the company. Ominously, the document also stated that Google will face a fine “at a level which will be sufficient to ensure deterrence”. According to some estimates, the company may be fined a total of $7.4 billion dollars, or 10% of its global turnover.
Google also has other cases which it will be answering this month, including one brought by the EU against its shopping practices where the company promoted its own services, and one against its AdSense platform.