Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL; DR
- According to Google, the most popular search term on Bing is “Google”.
- The company is using this data to challenge the EU’s groundbreaking $ 5 billion fine in 2018.
In 2018, the EU pounded Google with a groundbreaking $ 5 billion fine for abusing Android’s dominance and forcing OEMs to use their search engine on phones. It’s still struggling to overturn that ruling in court, and its latest rebuttal is pulling Microsoft’s Bing into the discussion.
According to evidence submitted by Google’s lawyer in a Luxembourg court this week (via Bloomberg) Consumers use competing search engines to access Google. Bing was used as a specific example. Google argues that “Google” is “by far” the most popular search term on Bing because consumers choose it over competing products, not because they are forced to.
“Google’s market share in general search is in line with consumer surveys that show 95% of users prefer Google over competing search engines,” added the defense.
EU regulators would argue that Google does not equate competing search engines with Android, but it seems Google understands that even if given a choice, consumers would still flock to its product. In 2018, Google also argued that Android couldn’t be a monopoly as it competes with the likes of Apple in the smartphone market.
In addition to the 2018 ruling, Google is currently juggling several antitrust and competition cases around the world. In the United States, the company is facing a lawsuit from 36 states for abuse of control over the Play Store. According to reports, the EU Commission is investigating the dominance of Google Assistant on Android phones, which could lead it to face another lawsuit in the block.
