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Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL; DR
- The most popular search term on Bing is “Google”, according to Google.
- The company is using this data to challenge the historic $ 5 billion fine imposed by the EU in 2018.
In 2018, the EU imposed a historic $ 5 billion fine on Google for abusing Android’s dominance, leading OEMs to use its search engine on phones. He’s still fighting to overturn that ruling in court, and his latest rebuttal draws Microsoft’s Bing into the conversation.
According to evidence presented by Google’s lawyer in a Luxembourg court this week (via Bloomberg), consumers use competing search engines to access Google. The specific example provided was Bing. Google maintains that “Google” is the most popular search term on Bing “by far” because consumers choose it over competing products, not because they are forced to.
“Google’s market share in general search is consistent with consumer surveys showing that 95% of users prefer Google over competing search engines,†the defense added.
EU regulators would say Google isn’t giving competing search engines a par on Android, but it seems Google understands that even if they have a choice, consumers will still flock to its product. In 2018, Google also argued that Android cannot be a monopoly as it competes with Apple in the smartphone market.
Google is currently juggling several antitrust and anti-competitive cases around the world in addition to the 2018 ruling. In the United States, the company faces a lawsuit from 36 states for abusing its control over the Play Store. The European Commission is reportedly investigating Google Assistant’s dominance over Android phones, which could see it facing yet another lawsuit in the bloc.
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