*By Alisha Haridasani*
Google on Wednesday said it will appeal a record $5 billion fine from EU regulators for using its Android platform to quash competition.
But its argument may not have legs to stand on, said Quartz reporter Edmund Heaphy.
"The law is quite clear-cut, and the antitrust regulations are quite clear," he said. "This isn't a new thing for the EU. Microsoft was fined in 2004 for a very similar practice."
The European Commission holds that Google unfairly leveraged the market position of Android, the mobile operating system that powers about 80 percent of phones in the world.
“Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine,” said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in a [statement](http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4581_en.htm).
The company has 90 days to end its illegal practices and, if it fails to comply, parent company Alphabet will be forced to fork over 5 percent of its average daily revenue. The company brought in $103 billion last year.
Google argues its Android system has, in fact, encouraged competition.
“Rapid innovation, wide choice, and falling prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition, and Android has enabled all of them,” said CEO Sundar Pichai in a [blog post](https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/android-has-created-more-choice-not-less/).
The Silicon Valley giant offers the Android system for free to handset makers and makes money off of its search engine. This ruling, however, could force Google to radically change that business model and instead start charging manufacturers to use Android, said Pichai.
The fine announced Wednesday is the largest antitrust penalty ever levied, further demonstrating the European bloc's attempts to rein in tech companies that, across the Atlantic, are perceived as untouchable.
The EU slapped Google with a separate $2.7 billion fine last year ー which at the time set its own record ー for unfairly promoting its own shopping service in search results. And in May the union implemented the General Data Protection Regulation, raising the standards for user data privacy and forcing companies around the globe to alter their data collection processes.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/google-hit-with-5-billion-eu-fine)
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
