Google secures two Android phone makers’ backing in fight against EU antitrust order

BRUSSELS: Alphabet unit Google’s fight against a record EU antitrust fine related to its Android mobile software received a boost after Europe’s second-highest court allowed Android phone maker Gigaset and HMD Global Oy to intervene in the lawsuit.

Google is challenging the European Commission’s 4.34 billion euro ($4.8 billion) fine and an order to drop anti-competitive business practices aimed at blocking rivals in internet browsing at the Luxembourg-based General Court.

The EU competition enforcer in its 2018 ruling said Google gave itself an unfair advantage by pre-installing its Chrome browser and Google search app on Android smartphones and notebooks.

Germany’s Gigaset Communications GmbH and Finland’s HMD Global Oy, which is the exclusive licensee of the Nokia brand for phones, can take part in the process in support of Google, the court said in a document published on Thursday.