Google forced Android makers to pre-install its search and paid €4.34B for the privilege

Android’s market share made it the dominant mobile operating system outside Apple’s iOS, but Google faced a strategic problem: users who bought Android phones could choose a different search engine or browser, weakening Google’s core search advertising business. Google solved this by requiring manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and the Chrome browser as a condition for licensing the Google Play Store. Phone makers who wanted access to Android’s app ecosystem had no choice but to accept.

Google also paid large manufacturers and mobile network operators to exclusively pre-install Google Search, and prevented manufacturers from selling devices running competing forked versions of Android. The European Commission found that these three practices illegally cemented Google’s dominance in general internet search, violating Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

On July 18, 2018, the EC fined Google a record €4.34 billion (£3.9B; $5B). Google was given 90 days to change its practices or face penalty payments of up to 5% of Alphabet’s average daily worldwide turnover. Google appealed, and in September 2022 the General Court upheld the decision but reduced the fine to €4.125 billion. In July 2026, the European Court of Justice dismissed Google’s final appeal.