The Android antitrust case against Google in Europe continues but it’s still going nowhere. After officially charging Google with violations of its antitrust law in April then extending the deadline for response in July, then extending it again earlier this month, the European Commission has—you’ve guessed it—extended the tech giant’s deadline once again. As revealed by the office of Margrethe Vestager, the European Competition Commissioner, Google asked for more time to review the documents the EU officials presented in the case against the Mountain View-based company. After short consideration, the commission concluded that the reasons for the request are reasonable and has set a new deadline for the response – October 7th.
While it may seem that Google is stalling here, it’s worth noting that the EU requested literally thousands of various documents that the company is supposed to present in response to the official charges so it’s possible that the tech giant’s lawyers really didn’t have enough time to review everything in addition to going through the documents filed by the EU officials in April. Sources close to Brussels claim that the European Commission doesn’t believe it has anything to gain by forcing Google into giving a rushed response so a fourth deadline extension in October is still in the realm of possibility. Legal experts speculate that this is because the EU is confident its antitrust case against Google is strong and is demonstrating that by giving the US-based company as much time for response as it needs.
Google is facing charges over alleged breaches of the EU competition law as the European officials claim that the tech giant used the dominant position of its Android operating system on the market to forcefully bring Google services such as Play Store, Chrome, and Search to virtually every Android device. This spring, the company issued a public statement in which it said that its business model isn’t designed to cripple competition but to keep manufacturing costs low while still giving users all the freedom they want when it comes to customizing their Android devices. And while the Californian firm is readying its response to the Statement of Objections filed against it in April, it’s also currently facing EU antitrust charges over its Search business and recent reports suggest that the European Competition Commissioner is considering going after AdWords as well.