Google’s Default Bullying & the Antitrust Decision

You may remember this antitrust lawsuit back in 2021, where attorneys general from across the US sued Google for bullying other big tech companies. Whether with bribes, threats, or coercion, Google did everything in their power to remain the default.

From a user experience perspective, a customer will typically use whatever comes as the default on their phone. Google made sure to crush competitors and maintain default status across its different products, including search, app stores, and assistants.

The US DOJ estimated that Google paid up to $10B a year in partner deals, and the plaintiffs wanted consequences, including trying to get Google to sell its Chrome browser or even Android.

• The plaintiff demanded that Google would have to sell Android and their browser. Other big tech companies were licking their lips.
• It potentially meant the death of Firefox, which relies on their Google search deal for a cool $500M a year.

This antitrust lawsuit centered around the way Google maintained its monopoly by making deals with competitors to ensure Google products were always bundled in and competitors couldn’t make competing products.

There are numerous examples of this:

• When Samsung wanted to make its Galaxy Store, Google tried to pressure and pay Samsung off. They also tried to pay app developers to not publish on the Galaxy Store. Amazon’s app store also suffered a similar fate.
• Epic Games complained that Google crushed their deal with OnePlus to preload Fortnite onto its phones. And they did it again with LG.
• Chinese manufacturers like OnePlus and Xiaomi struggled against Google’s licensing deals. And now China has launched its own antitrust investigation into Google.
• Verizon accepted a search deal with Google without reviewing any competing offers. It mandated Google search on Verizon phones.
• Smart speakers were mandated to use Google Search and Google Voice Assistant.

Decision:

Google is unable to make agreements with other companies when:

• All-or-nothing deals force companies to ship all Google products together, instead of picking the apps they want.
• Partners can use the Google Play Store or other apps without being required to install another app.
• Revenue sharing would be limited because you don’t install all of their apps.
• Google will not be forced to sell Chrome or Android.
• Google can still pay other companies for preloading or making default Google services; however, they can’t make these contracts last more than a year.
• Google can still force a partner to be exclusive.
• Google can still pay partners for pre-installing their apps or making them default.
• Google must give their rivals access to search index and user-interaction data, but not ad targeting data.
• Google must let other search competitors sell their own ads.
• Google does not have to add ‘choose your own default search’ inside of Android.
• Google doesn’t have to give advertisers specific data.
• Google must disclose changes to its ad auction.

But what no one is talking about is Google’s most recent anti-competitive action: banning alternative app stores entirely.

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This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 13. Watch the full episode here.

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