Google facing another EU antitrust probe over market dominance – reports

According to an MLex reporter’s tweet on Thursday, the European Commission (EC) is to investigate whether Google forced device manufacturers to install Google Assistant as the default voice software on Android devices.

The EC said on Wednesday that the market dominance of Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google Assistant has triggered concerns of potential anti-competitive practices.

“We saw indications of some practices that we know too well may lead to tipping and to the emergence of gatekeepers,” said EC Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. “And from the preliminary results published today, it appears that our concerns are shared by many players,” she told reporters.

The statements from the EC follow a year-long inquiry into voice assistants and other internet-connected devices, and responses from more than 200 companies. Vestager said it was too early to say if the inquiry would lead to cases against companies. That will be decided after a 12-week-long public consultation ending September 1, with a final report due in the first half of 2022.

Google is already facing hefty fines from the European regulator, which had said the US tech giant has used its popular Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals – an anti-competitive practice – since 2011.

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