The EC’s Android Decision ‒ a Debate Hosted by Politico

Posted by Politico

The EC’s Android Decision ‒ a Debate Hosted by Politico

The European Commission’s decision on the Android investigation it began in 2016 is expected this week, now that the pyrotechnics from the NATO summit, President Trump’s visit to the UK, and the FIFA World Cup Final have subsided. There is general agreement on the global relevance of this decision and the appeals process that is expected.

The following opinion pieces, from an online debate hosted by Politico, argue for and against Google’s practices that led to the investigation.

On one hand Thomas Vinje of Clifford Chance, who is representing Fairsearch, a complainant in the case, argues that the EC’s decision will “put an end to Google’s unfair practices… preventing third parties from competing in mobile operating systems, key services and apps, and reinforcing its dominant positions in these areas,” and, more importantly, “it gets to the heart of Google’s anticompetitive behavior: its growing monopoly over our personal data.”

On the other, Massimiliano Trovato and Alberto Mingardi (research fellow and Director of the Istituto Bruno Leoni in Milan, of which Google is a financial donor) posit that “[t]his crusade of Vestager’s against Google is misguided at best—and more likely to harm European consumers than to help them.”

The opinion articles can be found in the links below:

• Thomas Vinje: “Why Android is Google’s Trojan horse”
• Massimiliano Trovato and Alberto Mingardi: “Vestager’s Misguided Google Crusade”