Google slapped with $5 billion fine by EU for Android antitrust breach

European antitrust regulators have fined Google with a 4.34 billion euro ($5.04 billion) fine for abusing its position in the smartphone market to increase the dominance of its search engine, the European Commission announced in a statement Wednesday. 

Google was ordered to stop the practice within 90 days or face further penalty payments of up to 5% of the average daily global turnover of its parent company, Alphabet. 

European regulators say Google has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and Chrome app as a condition for licensing Google's Play Store. The company also made payments to "large manufacturers and mobile network operators" in order for them to exclusively pre-install the Google Search app on their devices. Finally, Google has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling "even a single smart mobile device" running on alternative, non-Google-approved versions of Android, the regulators have found.  Read more...