Pre-crime
Recently, the European Commission sued Google, claiming that the pre-loading of Google applications on Android smartphones is in violation of the antitrust law. Google is striking back by mentioning that the practice was already accepted by the Fair Trade Commission of Korea and the Federal Trade Commission of the United States.
The ongoing controversy was triggered by a written contract exposed during the lawsuit between Google and Oracle. In the contract, Google told mobile phone manufacturers to pre-load applications such as Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Play in order to use Android OS. However, Google said anyone can use Android without Google and can use Google without Android. “The point is the Fair Trade Commission of Korea and the Federal Trade Commission of the United States did not call it into question,” it added.
It should be noted, though, that the Korean government acquitted Google in July 2013 because its Web search market share in Korea was below 10 percent. On the contrary, Google’s search market share amounts to over 80 percent in Europe, which means the case in Korea is not applicable to the lawsuit brought by the European Commission at this time. Back in April 2011, Naver and Daum had brought up a similar issue with the Fair Trade Commission, claiming that Google tried to block their search engines when supplying Android OS to smartphone manufacturers.