In a move that could reshape the tech landscape, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is reportedly considering a drastic breakup of Google. According to a report by Bloomberg, the tech giant has been found to have illegally monopolized the online search market, and the government is exploring options to restore competition.

Google Faces Potential Breakup and Forced Sale of Key Assets

Following a landmark court ruling against Google, the DoJ is examining several potential remedies, including the most aggressive option: splitting the company into smaller entities. This would mark one of the most significant antitrust actions since the attempt to dismantle Microsoft over two decades ago.

While a breakup is on the table, less drastic measures are also being considered. These include forcing Google to share more data with competitors, imposing restrictions on its AI development, and banning exclusive contracts that fueled its dominance.

The case centers on Google’s practices with Android, Chrome, and AdWords, where the company’s exclusive contracts with device manufacturers have raised concerns among regulators. The DoJ is particularly worried about how Google’s search dominance could impact competition in the rapidly evolving AI sector.

If the breakup proceeds, the sale of Android, Chrome, or AdWords could be on the cards. Such a move would have far-reaching implications for the tech industry and consumers alike.

While Google plans to appeal the court ruling, the company faces a challenging road ahead. The potential breakup of the tech giant is a stark reminder of the growing scrutiny faced by big tech companies and the government’s determination to promote fair competition.

(Source)

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Apple has just been hit with another antitrust charge in the European Union. This news arrives following a complaint from Spotify, which caused the EU to start a probe into the matter.

According to a Reuters report, the latest charges are a part of an ongoing investigation by the European Commission. This investigation is related to an anti competitive charge accusations that were filed by the popular music streaming platform, Spotify. This will likely further strengthen EU’s case against the Cupertino based giant and other major tech firms in the region. For those unaware, the European Union has been attempting to rein in tech giants, which have grown exponentially across the globe in recent years.

Back in 2019, Spotify had filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing Apple of forcing App Store rules that “purposely limit choice and stifle innovation at the expense of the user experience.” The music streaming platform also brought up Apple’s 30 percent commission on App Store in its arguments, since this forced the brand to raise the charges of its subscription plans to make up for the commission that Apple charges.

Spotify further added that this gave the iPhone maker an “unfair unadvantage” as Spotify was unable to compete with Apple Music on a level playing field. A source close to the matter told Reuters said that the European Commission now plans on charging the company with another antitrust charge in a supplementary statement of objections. So, the new charges could be issued in the next few weeks.

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The European Union’s General Court has ruled that the European Commission was right in fining Google for an antirust breach for which the technology giant was fined 2.42 billion euros, approximately $2.8 billion.

A few years ago, in 2017, EU’s competition watchdog European Commission found that Google had favored its own comparison shopping services and fined the company for breaching antitrust rules. The search engine giant then contested the claims to the second-highest court in the EU and has now lost the appeal.

The court has confirmed that the company will need to pay the fine of 2.42 billion euros. The Alphabet-owned company also has an option to appeal this verdict and take the case forward to the EU’s highest court.

In a press release, the court said: “The General Court finds that, by favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms, Google departed from competition on the merits.”

The company said it made changes in 2017 to comply with the commission’s decision. In a statement, the company said: “Our approach has worked successfully for more than three years, generating billions of clicks for more than 700 comparison shopping services.”

After this anti-trust fine in 2017, the commission followed by two other major antitrust penalties against Google, totaling 8.25 billion euros ($9.5 billion), which the company is appealing. The fines are a drop in the bucket for Google’s parent company which earned $182 billion in revenue just last year.

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Nvidia’s acquisition of ARM has been facing obstacles ever since the company announced the deal and in the latest setback, the European Union antitrust regulators have now opened a full-scale investigation into the acquisition of ARM, a deal worth $54 billion.

The antitrust regulator will be looking into the concerns about the deal leading to higher prices, fewer options to choose from, and reduced innovation. The Commission said that it would make a decision about the deal by March 15, 2022.

This full-scale investigation comes after a preliminary review during which Nvidia reportedly offered concessions that were viewed as insufficient by the European Commission.

Nvidia has not disclosed what these concessions are but it has previously said it would maintain ARM as a neutral technology supplier to soothe concerns from customers such as Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Apple, among others.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said: “Whilst Arm and Nvidia do not directly compete, Arm’s IP is an important input in products competing with those of Nvidia, for example in datacentres, automotive and in the Internet of Things. Our analysis shows that the acquisition of Arm by Nvidia could lead to restricted or degraded access to Arm’s IP, with distortive effects in many markets where semiconductors are used.”

Commenting on this, Nvidia spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the European Commission through the regulatory process. We look forward to the opportunity to address their initial concerns and continue demonstrating that the transaction will help to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation, including in the EU.”

A couple of months ago, the UK regulator found that the acquisition of ARM by Nvidia could damage competition and weaken rivals, and required a further lengthy investigation.

For the uninitiated, NVIDIA, the world’s biggest graphics card, and AI chips maker announced the acquisition of ARM last year. SoftBank had acquired ARM back in 2016 for 31.4 billion US Dollars. ARM is a known chip designer with its architecture being one of the most popular designs used in most smartphone chips.

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Big Tech companies are facing a lot of pressure amid scrutiny of their business practices by the antitrust regulators in various countries. Because of this, companies are making some changes to their business structure.

In line with this, Google is once again changing the way it charges fees to the app developers. The search engine giant has announced that all subscription-based app will be eligible for significantly less fess than the usual 30 percent.

As per the new changes, the company has confirmed that the subscription apps will now pay 15 percent fees instead of 30 percent. Further, the technology giant has announced that apps with services like ebooks and on-demand music streaming will be eligible for a fee as low as 10 percent.

The reason stated by Google behind cheaper fees on ebooks and music streaming apps is that “content costs account for the majority of sales” and that the rates “recognize industry economics of media content verticals.” Unlike its previous revision of fees, this new modification to the fee structure isn’t tied to overall revenue.

Earlier this year, in March, the company had cut its share of revenue on upfront or in-app purchases from 30 percent to 15 percent, but it is applicable only to the first $1 million per year that an app developer earns.

With this development, Google could be hoping to change its public image amid mounting regulatory scrutiny over how the company manages its app store and its relationship with third-party developers.

According to the estimates by analytics firm Sensor Tower, the tech giant collected around $11.6 billion in in-app purchases around the world in 2020 on $38.8 billion in spending on the Google Play store.

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Troubles for Apple just keeps piling on. After the report that Korea could make Apple pay $46 million in undeclared benefits and the company facing charges over NFC chip in iPhones and Apple Pay Europe’s antitrust regulators, Dutch antitrust authority has now found the Cupertino-based giant involved in anti-competitive behavior.

According to the latest report from Reuters, the Dutch antitrust authority has found that Apple’s rules requiring software developers to use its own in-app payment system are anti-competitive and has ordered it to make changes.

While Apple is facing similar challenges in several countries, the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) last month informed the US-based technology giant of its decision, making it the first antitrust regulator to make a finding of Apple having abused market power in the app store.

Interestingly, ACM has not levied any fine against Apple but has demanded changes to the in-app payment system. The decision is expected to get published in the coming weeks.

For those who are unaware, Apple has an in-app-store payment policy, which requires the application developers to exclusively use Apple’s payment system where the company takes out commissions, ranging from 15 percent to 30 percent.

The Dutch antitrust authority initiated an investigation in 2019 to find out if Apple’s practices amounted to an abuse of a dominant market position. However, it later reduced the scope of the investigation to focus only on dating market apps.

It was after a complaint filed by the Match Group, which owns the popular dating platform Tinder. The company had said that Apple’s rules were hindering it from direct communications with its customers about payments.

Recently, South Korea enacted a law that bars app store operators from forcing developers to use their official payment systems. Apple as well as Google are due to respond this month on how they plan to comply with the new rule.

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European antitrust regulators are reportedly set to charge technology giant Apple with anti-competitive practices regarding the NFC chip inside iPhones and Apple Pay. It is said that the charges are being finalized and be sent to Apple sometime next year.

For those who are unaware, last year, the European Commission had opened an investigation into Apple Pay and the iPhone’s NFC chip last year. It was focusing on whether Apple unfairly locked out competition for contactless payment services by restricting the use of the NFC chip inside iPhones.

While details about the report remain unclear, it says that Apple is set to be charged with “anti-competitive practices related to its NFC chip technology.” Apple could be forced to “open up its mobile payment system to rivals.”

Apple has been slowly opening access to the NFC in the iPhone, but compared to its integration with Apple Pay, third-party services are still significantly hindered.

The development comes at a time when Apple has been found in breach of competition law related to its music streaming service in Europe earlier this year. Following complaints from Spotify, the EU competition commission said that Apple unfairly favors Apple Music over rival streaming services due to the fees imposed on App Store applications.

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Apple has been facing several lawsuits in different regions around the world and the issues just keep increasing for the technology firm. In the latest development, it is said that Apple has to pay up to $46 million South Korea on benefits that it failed to declare.

Based on the data from Korea Fair Trade Commission, a lawmaker has come to the conclusion that technology giant Apple needs to pay $46 million. This is related to an investigation that found Apple guilty of antitrust behaviors.

In 2016, the US-based giant was accused of anti-competitive practices in South Korea. Given the popularity of its smartphones, the mobile carriers had to sell them and taking unfair advantage of its position, Apple was dictating terms. It was accused of imposing three onerous conditions on local carriers:

• Carriers had to buy minimum quantities of each model, dictated by Apple
• Carriers had to share the cost of warranty repairs or replacements
• Carriers had to pay to run Apple’s own TV ads for the iPhone

While Apple had settled the case by proposing a series of measures but the issue of dictating mobile carriers to pay for TV ads for the iPhones is coming to haunt the company.

Carriers had to pay the full cost of running iPhone ads on TV and they were only allowed to use Apple’s own ads. The carriers were permitted to only add their own logo to the final frame. This effectively gave free advertising to Apple, amounting to a taxable benefit that the company failed to declare.

It appears that Apple made local mobile carriers in Korea pay 20 to 30 billion won, for which Apple needs to pay 28.8 billion to 43.2 billion won in corporate taxes. But the total amount of corporate taxes the company should pay comes to 36.6 billion to 55 billion won when including additional taxes imposed for failing to report the corporate taxes.

The claim is from a minority party so it remains to be seen if anything comes out of it. But the timing is crucial as it comes at a time when Apple is under pressure in the country as Apple and Google are now required to allow developers to use third-party payment platforms in their app stores in Korea.

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NVIDIA has sought European Union antitrust approval for the $40 billion acquisition of chip designing company ARM. This could kickstart an antitrust probe which may become an obstacle for the company’s plan to close the deal by early 2022.

According to the European Commission filing, the initial deadline to rule on the transaction has a deadline of 13th October. The regulators are likely to echo worries similar to those voiced by the UK watchdog last month.

The competition watchdog of the United Kingdom has warned that the deal could damage competition and weaken rivals, and required a further lengthy investigation. The acquisition also needs approval from the U.S. and China.

The deal must be completed by September of next year, or NVIDIA would have to pay SoftBank $1.25 billion.

In a statement related to this, NVIDIA said, “We are working through the regulatory process and we look forward to engaging with the European Commission to address any concerns they may have. This transaction will be beneficial to Arm, its licensees, competition, and the industry.”

With criticism surrounding the deal, the EU is likely to extend its review by at least another four months to examine potential competition concerns. The company had originally planned to complete the deal by March 2022, when the acquisition was announced.

For the uninitiated, NVIDIA, the world’s biggest graphics card and AI chips maker announced the acquisition of ARM last year. As a part of the deal, NVIDIA will be paying 12 billion US Dollars in cash, which includes 2 billion US Dollars payable at signing and giving out 21.5 billion US Dollars worth of NVIDIA’s stock to SoftBank.

SoftBank had acquired ARM back in 2016 for 31.4 billion US Dollars. ARM is a known chip designer with its architecture being one of the most popular designs used in most smartphone chips from companies like Qualcomm, Apple, and even certain Intel chips.

Companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple are opposing the acquisition while some other companies, including Broadcom, MediaTek, and Marvell are in support of the deal.

To ensure that the deal gets approval, NVIDIA has promised that it will maintain open licensing and that the deal will help ARM, its licensees, and the industry. Antitrust officials rarely approve “behavioral commitments” without a more careful review due to the difficulty of checking how a company will keep its promises.

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The antitrust regulator in France has fined the tech giant Google around $593 million and has given the company two months to come up with proposals on how to pay publishers for their content or face more punishment.

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Competition Commission of India has just ordered an investigation into Google. The company has allegedly abused its dominant position of Android in the region’s smart TV market.

According to a TechCrunch report, the news arrives hours after the European Union opened a formal antitrust investigation into the Search engine giant for abusing its leading role in the advertising technology sector. As per the Competition Commission of India’s initial review, which began back in 2020, Google has breached certain anti competitive laws in the region. Thus, it is now facing an investigation of this scale that could apparently take up to a year to resolve.

The agency added that “The Commission is of the prima facie opinion that by making pre-installation of Google’s proprietary apps (particularly Play Store) conditional upon signing of ACC (Android Compatibility Commitments) for all Android devices manufactured/distributed/marketed by device manufacturers, Google has reduced the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell devices operating on alternative versions of Android i.e. Android forks, and thereby limited technical or scientific development relating to goods or services to the prejudice of consumers in contravention of Section 4(2)(b) of the Act.”

For those unaware, India is one of the largest markets by users for Google. Back in 2020, the company even pledged investing 10 billion US Dollars in the nation. In 2019 alone, 8 million smart TVs were sold in India, out of which 60 percent were powered by the Android OS. Now, a spokesperson has stated that the company is denying all allegations and added that “We are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all applicable competition laws.”

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The Apple Watch is at the center of another lawsuit as the company is facing another antitrust charge over its ECG system that it has allegedly “copied”, as per a medical firm AliveCor.

According to an AppleInsider report, the mobile medical company AliveCor has previously filed a patent infringement suit against the Cupertino based giant in Texas, US. The firm has also asked the US International Trade Commission to ban sales of the iPhone maker’s smartwatch. Now, AliveCor is also requesting a trial by jury over patent issues and has filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California.

As per the filing, AliveCor is claiming that the smartphone manufacturer initially supported the development of an electrocardiogram wristband, the Kardiaband. The lawsuit states that “Apple not only initially approved AliveCor’s apps but also advertised AliveCor’s innovations to sell more Apple Watches. AliveCor informed Apple about [it gaining] FDA clearance and that it intended to begin selling KardiaBands shortly along with its previously-approved Kardia and SmartRhythm apps.”

The filing adds that “Apple had finally realized heart health analysis was incredibly valuable to (and desired by) smartwatch users, and thus had been working in the background to copy AliveCor’s ideas, including both the ability to record an ECG on the Apple Watch, as well as to provide a separate app for heartrate analysis.” Unfortunately, the smartphone brand has yet to comment on the new filing.

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Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd, the tech giant in China, has been slapped with a record 18 billion yuan, approximately $2.75 billion, after a probe related to anti-monopoly found that the company abused its dominant market position for years.

The State Administration for Market Regulation in China said that it had determined that Alibaba, which is listed in New York and Hong Kong, had been “abusing market dominance” since 2015 by preventing its merchants from using other online e-commerce platforms.

This practice violates China’s antimonopoly law by hindering the free circulation of goods and infringing on the business interests of merchants, the regulator added. Apart from the highest-ever antitrust penalty globally, the company has been asked to make “thorough rectifications” to strengthen internal compliance and protect consumer rights.

The fine imposed on the Chinese tech giant accounts for about 4 percent of Alibaba’s domestic revenues in 2019, reports Reuters. It comes amid a crackdown on technology conglomerates and indicates China’s antitrust enforcement on internet platforms has entered a new era.

Alibaba came under intense scrutiny in its home country after the company’s billionaire founder Jack Ma’s stinging public criticism of the country’s regulatory system in October last year. A month later, authorities scuttled a planned $37 billion IPO by Ant Group, Alibaba’s internet finance arm, which was set to be the world’s biggest ever.

In December last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced its antitrust probe into the company. After this record fine, Ant Group still needs to agree to a regulatory-driven revamp that could significantly cut its valuations and rein in some of its freewheeling businesses.

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Apple is set to launch its new ad tracking transparency feature some time in early spring. But before its official launch, it has already faced backlash for the new privacy changes, especially from social media giant Facebook. Now, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has also warned the company to play fair.

According to a 9To5Mac report, the EU antitrust chief said that the new ad tracking feature does fall in with some of the proposed legislation in Europe. She even added that she has yet to receive any official complaints regarding these upcoming ad tracking transparency changes, which will essentially notify iPad and iPhone users when the apps and websites are tracking them and even offer an easy opt out option. Vestager said that the feature is actually in line with the recently proposed EU Digital Services/Markets Act legislation.

She added that “It is a very good thing to have a clear opt-out option. If you look at the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, these are some of the solutions we are looking at there.” However, the EU antitrust chief still warned that the feature could go beyond privacy focus and might border on anticompetitive practices as well. In an interview earlier this week, Vestager stated that ‘It can be competition if it is shown that Apple is not treating its own apps in the same way.”

As mentioned prior, Facebook is one of the biggest critic of this and is filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple over ATT feature. Notably, Apple has also claimed that this feature would also be applicable on itself along with third party developers. So it remains to be seen how the lawsuit plays out regarding the ad tracking feature.

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Facebook, the social media giant, is reportedly preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The company is alleging that the company is forcing developers to follow App Store rules that its own apps don’t have to abide by.

As per the reports, Facebook has been preparing the case for months alongside external legal experts. The complaint could also cover Apple‘s other practices, such as not allowing third-party messenger apps to become the default app.

It is also being reported that Facebook has discussed the possibility of inviting other companies to join the potential lawsuit. Do note that the company is preparing the complaint but hasn’t filed it yet.

The major reason behind this step of Facebook is the upcoming ad-tracking changes to the App Store which many developers believed gives an unfair advantage to Apple given that the policy doesn’t apply to Apple. However, the company says that it doesn’t share user data with third-party to protect user privacy.

If and when this lawsuit is filed, it will be the second major antitrust lawsuit against Apple in recent months. A few months ago, Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, filed a lawsuit against Apple seeking changes to the company’s business practices, mostly related to the in-app purchases and a whopping 30% cut the company takes.

Apple, along with Facebook, Google, and Amazon are currently under antitrust scrutiny in the United States. Apple and Facebook are under investigation related to online market competition, including for advertising business and App Store policies.

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Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp recently updated its terms and conditions as well as the privacy policy, detailing the sharing of data with Facebook and other partner companies. The users need to accept the terms by 8th February or else they won’t be able to access the app. Now, this move from the company has put it in trouble.

Competition Board in Turkey has launched an antitrust investigation into Facebook and WhatsApp soon after the company updated its privacy policy. The move comes after concerns were raised by local users, who are now looking at alternatives.

The authorities have also called for the new terms to be “suspended” pending its findings. Now, it would assess whether the policy change violated Turkish competition laws designed to prevent companies from abusing positions of market dominance.

On top of that, several government ministers have asked citizens to use other locally-developed messaging applications instead of WhatsApp. As a result, the BiP application received more than two million new users within 48 hours of the WhatsApp update.

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Globally, rival messaging applications of WhatsApp, such as Signal and Telegram, have witnessed a sudden rise in demand. While Signal doesn’t collect any metadata, Telegram collects much less data than the Facebook-owned service.

WhatsApp has been widely criticized for the updated privacy policy which states that it now reserves the right to share data it collects about users with the broader Facebook network, including Instagram, regardless of whether the user has an account or profile there.

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Earlier this month, we reported that several states in the United States are planning to file new antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook. That turned out to be true when last week Facebook was sued by the US federal regulators and more than 45 state prosecutors.

Now, around ten states of the U.S., led by Texas attorney general, has filed a lawsuit against Google, accusing the company of working with Facebook in an unlawful manner that violated antitrust law.

It accuses the tech giant of abusing its monopoly over the digital advertising market, allowing its own exchange to win ad auctions even when others bid higher and overcharging publishers for ads.

With such practice, the company aimed to boost its already-dominant online advertising business, claims the lawsuit. It adds that Google unlawfully acquired, attempted to acquire, or maintained a monopoly in several steps of the online ad market including both buying and selling sides.

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Further, it alleges that the search engine giant also engaged in unlawful tying arrangements between its ad products, forcing publishers to use another Google tool if they chose to operate on its ad exchange.

The lawsuit is seeking compensation for damages and also asks for “structural relief” which usually means divesting some assets. For those who are unaware, Google controls one-third of the global online advertising industry.

This latest lawsuit is the second major from regulators against Google and the fourth overall in the United States. The company is also expected to face another lawsuit this week from another coalition of bipartisan state AGs which also targets its search services.

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China is expected to tighten its anti trust reins around its technology giants, with its heavy fines being just the beginning. This arrives just after regulators also announced a probe into deals with major brands like Alibaba and Tencent.

Earlier this week, China’s market regulator announced that it would be raising its scrutiny on notable transactions, especially ones backed by internet giants. As per a Reuters report, the regulator is also looking into making “an example” of a 3.5 billion US Dollars plan for search engine Sogou Inc to be taken private by shareholder, Tencent Holdings. The information arrives from two sources close to the matter.

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A third source added that the regulator is also targeting a bid by private-equity firm MBK Partners to buy China’s top online car rental firm. The source believes that the move arrives to address the concern of competition as MBK already owns the industry’s second car rental brand. The State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) is planning a a thorough review of the Sogou Tencent transaction, which could even translate to the deal missing its July 2021 completion deadline.

According to one of the sources, “The deal now faces big uncertainty and there’s a big chance that it may not close as planned.” Notably, Internet search is a sensitive issue in China, with SAMR taking special consideration that Tencent is already one of the market leaders in various online sectors and fields that it operates its business in. As per Jiaming Zhang, a senior associate at law firm Allen & Overy, “all these recent developments seem to suggest that SAMR is ready to open a new chapter for its enforcement actions in the internet sector.”

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The antitrust authority in Italy slapped a fine of 10 million euros (roughly 12 million US Dollars) on Apple earlier this week. The company is being fined for “aggressive and misleading” commercial practices for its iPhones.

According to an ET report, the regulators said in a statement that the Cupertino based giant had been advertising certain aspects regarding its iPhones that might not be true. The primary culprit here is the water resistance claims that the company offered. Apparently, the water resistance claim only held true in certain controlled environments, which was never clarified to its customer. In other words, real world scenarios for its water resistance did not hold up quite well, and that this false claim has been tracked down till the iPhone 8

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Furthermore, the issue also extends towards its warranty service as well. Apple added a diclaimer that stated that its iPhones were not covered under warranty if they suffere damage from liquids. This essentially tricked the customers that believed that their phones were water resistant, but could not seek support in the case of the device getting damaged due to exposure to liquids, as stated by the antitrust body.

Unfortunately, Apple has declined to comment on the matter at the moment. So stay tuned for more, as we will be providing more updates when more information is available regarding the matter, or when the company finally publicly addresses the hefty fine it faces in Italy.

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It seems that Big Tech’s issues with the antitrust authorities in the United States keep piling up. As per the new report coming from WSJ, federal and state antitrust authorities in the U.S. are preparing to file new lawsuits against two of the leading tech companies — Google and Facebook.

The report adds that both the companies are facing about four more cases which are expected to get filed by the end of January 2021. This comes just weeks after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google.

As for these new legal troubles for the companies, officials in the agency are probing both Google and Facebook alleging that they abused their position in the industry to dominate the Search, Advertising, and Social Media sectors.

If the suits are to be filed, then it will be the first time Facebook faces an antitrust lawsuit in the United States. However, both companies have denied doing so and added that they operate in a highly competitive market and are offering most of their services for free that benefit consumer.

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The Big Four, which includes Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook, have been under fire for their business practices. Earlier this year, the companies faced a congressional panel and all four are still under scrutiny from the antitrust officials.

While Apple is facing investigation over its use of App Store for possible anticompetitive practices while Amazon is under investigation from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to determine if the company unfairly uses its dominance in the eCommerce space against competitors and small traders.

Reports indicate that FTC is likely to file its case against Facebook this month while a coalition of state attorney general could file its own case against the social media giant in the coming days. It remains to be seen if both these cases are filed jointly.

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A group of 165 companies and industry bodies have called for stricter action and tougher lines against Google, stating that the US search engine giant unfairly favors its own services on its web searches.

According to a Reuters report, the group includes companies from both the US and UK, along with others from over 21 different European countries. These firms sent a joint letter to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager earlier this week. In the letter, the group expressed that Google was giving unfair preference to its own services such as accommodation, travel, and jobs, in terms of placements in search results and have called for swift action against the company to end the practice.

Google has since refuted the allegations of it favoring its own services. The tech giant further added that its users are not locked in and that competition to its services is just one click away on the internet. As per a Google representative, “People expect Google to give them the most relevant, high quality search results that they can trust.”

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The representative also stated that “They do not expect us to preference specific companies or commercial rivals over others, or to stop launching helpful services which create more choice and competition for Europeans.” Notably, Vestager has already levied fines of over 8.25 billion euros (roughly 9.7 billion US Dollars) against Google in the past three years alone for abusing its market dominance, through Android and other platforms.

Notable members of the 165 strong group include Yelp, Expedia, Trivago, Kelkoo, Stepstone, and Foundem, which are a part of the largest ever consortium to write to the EU competition chief for action. The European Commission said it had received the letter and a reply will arrive in due time. It further added that the market will be carefully assessed as well.

In the letter titled ‘UNJUSTIFIED ADVANTAGES,’ the group called out the search giant stating that “While we compete amongst ourselves for the best consumer experience, there is one common competitor that does not compete fairly – Google. It gained unjustified advantages through preferentially treating its own services within its general search results pages by displaying various forms of grouped specialized search results (so-called OneBoxes).”

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Google is facing an antitrust investigation in a couple of countries, including the United States and China, and now yet another country has joined the list — India, which is also one of the biggest markets for the company.

India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has opened an investigation into allegations about Google using its dominant position as an app store to promote its payment service in the country.

Now, CCI will be reviewing the claims of whether the tech giant prominently promotes its payment service named Google Pay during the setup of an Android smartphone and if Play Store’s billing system is designed “to the disadvantage of both i.e. apps facilitating payment through UPI, as well as users.”

The complaint against Google alleges that the Play Store’s billing system favors the Google Pay app and the in-app purchases for apps downloaded through Play Store are also mandated to support Google Pay service “if they want to be listed on the Play Store” and are required to pay a “high commission” for the same.

In response to this, the company has told CCI that Android is not dominant in the Indian market as it faces significant competition from feature phone operating systems as feature phones now come with functions and performance that attributes to a smartphone.

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The search engine giant also says that its 15 percent and 30 percent service fee is not arbitrary and is market-based, legitimate, and pro-competitive as it covers third party fees and supports investments in Play Store, including resources for developers.

For those who are unaware, Google Pay was launched in India around three years back but at that time, the service was called Google Tez. Currently, Google Pay is the second-largest online payment service in India, slightly behind Walmart’s PhonePe.

Apart from this investigation, the company is also facing two other antitrust inquiries in the Indian market which includes allegations about abusing its dominance of Android in the Smart TV market and another regarding its dominance of Android in the mobile market.

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Apple has been involved in a few controversies because of its policies and now the company is facing yet another antitrust complaint about recently made changes in the privacy policy on iPhones.

As per the report coming from WSJ, advertising companies and publishers have filed a complaint with Competition Authority in France, claiming that Apple’s changes in the privacy policy are anticompetitive.

From early 2021, Apple‘s operating software will require apps to get opt-in permission from the users to collect an advertising identifier. For those who are unaware, this unique identifier helps companies deliver targeted ads and check campaign performances.

The complaint argues that in such a case, very few users will agree to this and as a result, businesses won’t be able to offer personalized ads. It adds that the language will drive-away users and the advertising identifier will become useless for most ecosystems.

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While apps will need to get permission from the users, Apple’s own apps won’t have to show prompt or get user permission. Apple is offering personalized ads in the App Store and on Apple News based on where users go and what users do in Apple’s apps. To opt-out of the default Apple tracking, users need to do that manually by finding the relevant options in the Settings app.

The Cupertino-based tech giant had planned to introduce this new change in policy in September this year but decided to delay it to next year after criticism from high-profile companies like Facebook and others.

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Troubles for Alphabet’s Google in terms of antitrust cases seem to be piling up. The company is now facing a new antitrust case in India which alleges that the tech giant is abusing its Android operating system’s position in the Smart TV market.

The development, which was first reported by Reuters citing an unnamed person and two lawers as the source, is the fourth antitrust challenge for Google in India. As per the report, the company has been under the radar since June this year.

The allegation is regarding Google’s agreements with companies that effectively stop them from using both the Android system and a modified version of it on different devices that the companies make.

For example, if a company is making and selling smartphones powered by the Android operating system, the same company cannot sell Smart TV running its competition platform such as Amazon Fire TV. Similarly, if the company is selling Smart TV running a different OS, then it cannot offer Google’s services and apps on their phones.

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As per the report, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been looking into the allegations that Google engages in anti-competitive practices by creating barriers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for Smart TVs, such as Amazon Fire TV’s operating system.

The case against Google has been filed by two antitrust lawyers — Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand. CCI had directed Google to submit its written responses to the allegations and the company has sought more time.

In the past couple of years, Google has faced three issues related to antitrust in the Indian market. Currently, the tech giant is also facing antitrust challenges in the United States and China is also gearing up for the same.

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China is gearing up to launch an antitrust probe into Google based on the allegations that the company has leveraged the dominance of its Android mobile operating system to stifle competition, reports Reuters.

The Chinese government has also added that the practice could cause “extreme damage” to Huawei and other Chinese companies. It is said that the case was proposed by Huawei last year and has been submitted by the top market regulator to the State Council’s antitrust committee for review.

A decision on proceeding with the formal investigation could come sometime this month. The investigation, if it goes ahead, could affect China’s relationship with the United States, which has already deteriorated by the U.S. government targeting Chinese companies.

The development comes at a time when the Trump administrator has targeted several Chinese companies. It has put sanctions on Huawei, effectively banning the company and restricting it in several ways, making it difficult to keep doing business.

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Apart from Huawei, the United States government is also targeting other companies, including ByteDance-owned TikTok, Tencent’s WeChat, and the country’s one of the largest chipset maker SMIC.

China is also planning a major revamp of its antitrust laws and the newly proposed amendments include a dramatic increase in maximum fines and expanded criteria for judging a company’s control of a market.

On the other hand, the United States is also reportedly planning to launch an antitrust probe against Google. The Department of Justice could look into Google’s Android dominance, along with its large share of digital advertising and search engine businesses.

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Apple and Epic Games fought in a federal court arguing whether to reinstate the popular Fortnite game in Apple’s App Store. It is a part of the larger antitrust argument that could reshape a key part of the apps ecosystem.

Epic Games is trying to get a temporary court order that would force Apple to reinstate Fortnite on its iOS App Store. For those who are unaware, Fortnite was removed from the App Store a couple of months ago for breaching contract as the game removed Apple’s proprietary in-app payment system that takes a 30% cut from developers.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has not given a timeframe for a decision on the injunction. She also added that the case should be tried before a jury, which could happen in July 2021.

Epic Games acknowledged that the company breached its agreement with Apple but claimed that the company was simply refusing to comply with an anti-competitive contract and that forcing a legal battle was part of the plan.

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Apple has alleged that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is attempting to lead a developer revolt that cuts at the heart of Apple’s business model. But it’s noteworthy that this isn’t the first time developer has revolted against Apple. Spotify also battled with Apple over its policies and most recently Hey email app also faced issues with Apple.

The scrutiny of Apple is based on the fact that the company holds much power over developers in its App Store. Apple and Google are virtually controllers of access to apps through their App Store and Play Store on iOS and Android devices.

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