‘Consumers aren’t stupid’: Google lawyer rejects EU market abuse ruling

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Billions of people use Google because it’s the best, not because of deals the company made to stay competitive, Google’s lawyer said on Friday, wrapping up a week of testimony as the U.S. tech giant fights a record $5 billion antitrust fine.

The European Commission hit Alphabet’s Google with a 4.34 billion euro ($5 billion) fine in 2018 for using its Android mobile operating system to thwart rivals and cement its dominance in general internet searching from 2011.

At issue are deals requiring phone makers to pre-install the Google Search app and the Chrome browser app together with Google Play, as well deals blocking some variants of Android.