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EU: EC grants Google yet more time to respond to antitrust charges

By  |  October 4, 2016

Alphabet has been given yet another extension to file its respond to charges in Europe that it has misused the dominance of its Android mobile platform to lock out competition by promoting its own services over and above others.

Reuters reported the extension today, which gives the company until the last day of this month to file its rebuttal, and follows another extension last month — at the time touted as Google’s last — which pushed the deadline from September 7 to September 20. The original EC deadline for Google’s response was in April so we’re heading for six months later already at this stage.

At the weekend Reuters reported the EC is preparing to fine the company in the Android probe — citing a charge sheet it had seen, although it did not provide details of the size of the impending fine.

The charge sheet also apparently includes an EC instruction to Google to cease making payments to smartphone makers as an incentive to pre-install its apps.

Full Content: Reuters

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