Question

In 2018 the European Commission (EC) fined Google €4.34 billion for breaching Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement. If you were an economic advisor of the undertaking company, what type of economic arguments would you bring against the claim of the EC?

Answer 1

As an economic advisor of Google, I would deny the European Union's accusations against the company; and clearly state that the services of my company had helped the growth of region's digital economy. Android ecosystem balances carefully the interests of hardware makers, developers, users, and mobile network operators. It hasn’t hurt competition, rather it has expanded it. The rival point is although related to whether the visibility and discoverability of a preload on a dominant platform is an unfair benefit, not that other apps at a technical level are being blocked. The third party app such as Spotify and Snapchat has been successes that have been possible despite the company’s own Android preloads. The platforms of open source are often “fragile” and also the Commission’s approach risks upsets the “balance of requirements” among the developers and users, and such action could mean they favor closed over open platforms