Belgium: EC fines Google €4.34 billion for 'breaching EU antitrust rules'

The European Commission has fined Google €4.34 billion ($5.03 billion) for breaching EU antitrust rules, said European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager in Brussels on Wednesday.
"Google has engaged in illegal practices to cement its dominant market position in internet's search. It must put an effective end to this conduct within 90 days or face penalty payments," said Vestager.
According to findings, "Google has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search and browser apps [Chrome] on devices running on the Android mobile operating system," said Vestager, "if they wanted to be able to sell devices with the Google app store."
"Google paid manufacturers and network operators to make sure that only the Google search app was pre-installed on such devices," she added.
Moreover, "Google has obstructed the development of competing mobile operating systems. This could have provided a platform for rival search engines to gain traffic."
Concluding, Vestager said that Google has used Android "as a vehicle to cement its dominance as a search engine."