By Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS- -- A group of Google adversaries announced a new formal complaint Tuesday to the European Union's antitrust watchdog over the Alphabet Inc. unit's behavior with its Android mobile-operating service.

The Open Internet Project, whose members include German publishing giants Axel Springer SE and Hubert Burda Media, as well as a handful of French internet companies, said it had filed a new complaint to the EU against Google because the technology giant had "imposed contractual restraints on manufacturers of Android smartphones and tablets, which make it virtually impossible for them to produce and market Google-free devices."

The European Commission, the bloc's antitrust watchdog, last April accused Google of using its Android mobile-operating system, which runs more than 80% of the world's smartphones, to strong-arm phone makers and telecom companies into favoring Google's search engine and browser on their devices.

The latest complaint increases pressure on Google, as well as the regulator, to complete the various investigations into the company.

App developer Disconnect Inc. as well as Fairsearch, a coalition of Google's competitors, have both filed formal complaints to the EU related to Google's behavior with Android.

In addition, the EU has formally accused Google of skewing its online search results to favor its comparison-shopping service and alleged the company violates the bloc's rules by restricting how websites offering Google's search function can show advertisements from other companies.

The regulator is moving forward with its decision against Google in the shopping case, according to people familiar with the matter. The EU has asked some complainants whether the information they submitted is nonconfidential and could be shared with Google. This is a sign the commission is preparing to show the company more evidence on which it plans to base its decision, the sources said.

Any decision in the shopping case is likely more than a month away because the commission's judgment would need to be reviewed by a committee of competition authorities from the EU's member states.

Decisions in the advertising and Android cases would follow later.

With its Android complaint, the organization said it hoped to provide the commission with more evidence that could help the commission come to a decision and order changes to Google's behavior.

OIP said Google's Chrome browser for mobile defaults to a Google search bar and only offers users several alternative search engines to change the default, but those options don't include French search engine Qwant, one of OIP's top members.

"When you control search, you control the Android," said Éric Leandri, president of OIP and Chief Executive of Qwant.

A mobile version of Chrome currently in development but available for people to try out allows other search engines to be set as the default search bar.

App developer Disconnect Inc. as well as Fairsearch, a coalition of Google's competitors, have also both filed formal complaints to the EU related to Google's behavior with Android.

OIP also said it would join forces with the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, another European lobbying group that targets Google. It said it aimed to fight any "abuses of dominant position" by Google and fellow U.S. tech giants, Apple Inc., Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

Icomp was initially founded by Microsoft Inc. to campaign against Google in Europe, but Microsoft pulled its support for the group last April after it agreed with Google to end regulatory battles around the globe.

News Corp., owner of The Wall Street Journal, has filed two complaints with the EU involving Google's competition practices.

Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 07, 2017 12:46 ET (17:46 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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