Google was officially accused by the EU for unfair an anti-competitive practices back in the end of April of this year, and since then the company has been given a number of extensions on replying to those charges. As of today, the European Commission has given Google it’s fourth extension, allowing them to have until the 31st of this month to reply to the charges relating to Android that have been set before them. This extension follows another extension which was granted to Google back on September 8th.
While October 31st is the new date for Google’s deadline to reply to the charges in the case brought against them over Android, Google has separate dates for two other antitrust cases, including a case relating to Search Advertising and another case relating to Shopping. The deadlines for Google replying to these charges are October 26th and and October 13th respectively. When it comes to the case relating to Android, back in April when Google was first accused, the European Commission (the regulatory body that represents the European Union) stated that Google was using access to their Google Apps services as a way to force device makers into installing specific Google services such as Search, Gmail and others, which they feel is anti-competitive.
The charges over shopping and online search advertising are a little bit different, as they weren’t accused of forcing other companies into installing services for access to other services, rather the charges state that Google is accused of listing their own shopping service in the search results at a higher ranking than other competing services, while the charges against them for the advertising case accuse them of blocking competing companies in online search advertising. While Google has not actually been found guilty in any of these cases yet, should they be found guilty of these claims they could potentially face a $7.4 Billion fine. It’s also possible that instead of the aforementioned fine, Google could instead end up having to pay an amount equal to 10 percent of their Global turnover for each of the three cases that are being brought against them currently. With Google’s new extension they have nearly another month to review the documents in the Android case, and at least a couple more weeks to review documents for the other two cases before they respond.