European Union: Announced Statement of Objections in EC investigation into Google for alleged abuse of dominance regarding its search engine

On 20 April 2016, the European Commission (EC) published its statement of objections as part of its investigation into Google for possible violations of EU antitrust rules by allegedly abusing its market dominance in the search engine market. Specifically, Google allegedly incentivized the pre-installation of Google Search in a monetary fashion for both manufacturers and network operators. Besides allegedly abusing its dominance in the search engine market, the EC is also investigating Google's conduct in relation to the mobile operating system Android and whether anti-competitive agreements were entered or whether a dominant position was abused.