The EU’s competition rules are hurting consumers and businesses

Today’s announcement by the European Commission pushes for more changes to Google Search, Android and Play that will hurt European businesses and consumers, hinder innovation, weaken security, and degrade product quality.

Hurting European consumers and businesses

The Commission’s findings require us to make even more changes to how we show certain types of Search results, which would make it harder for people to find what they are looking for and reduce traffic to European businesses. This is, quite simply, misguided.

• Let’s take one example: When we can’t show travel results that take people directly to airline sites, they typically end up with a more expensive ticket because airlines have to pay commissions to intermediary websites. Those changes, and many more that we have had to make in Europe, are already causing European businesses to lose up to 30% of traffic. Users are so frustrated that many are resorting to clunky workarounds to get to the companies and information that they want.

Exposing Europeans to malware and fraud from bad apps

The Commission findings on Android and Play create a false choice between openness and security. They risk exposing people in Europe to more malware and fraud and may mean that we can’t provide as much openness in the future:

• Unlike on iOS where Apple must review apps first, developers can freely distribute apps on Android. This creates more choice than any other platform - users can access 50 times more apps on Android than iOS. But if we can’t protect our users from scammy or malicious links that take our users outside of the secure Play environment, then the Commission is effectively forcing us to choose between a closed model and an unsafe one.
• Similarly, if we can’t charge reasonable fees to support the ongoing development of Android and the Play services we offer, then we can’t invest in an open platform that powers billions of phones around the world, helping not just those who can afford to spend 1000 Euros on the latest premium model.

We will keep engaging with the Commission and comply with its rules. But today’s findings now increase the risk of an even worse experience for Europeans. The DMA is designed to regulate large platforms like Google, Apple and Meta, and boost competition, but in reality, it is having the opposite effect by hurting European businesses and consumers. We hope to find a way of addressing these concerns.