Google now under Android antitrust investigation in the U.S. as well as Europe

Google must wonder whether it will ever be free from antitrust investigations. Following antitrust charges against its search business (cleared in the USA, upheld in Europe), the EU filed a second complaint that Google had abused its dominant position in the mobile field to favor its own Android apps. The allegation is that Google forced smartphone companies to favor Google apps over rival ones in return for permission to use Android. Bloomberg reports that the U.S. appears to be opening a similar investigation in the USA.

The Federal Trade Commission reached an agreement with the Justice Department to spearhead an investigation of Google’s Android business, [two sources] said. FTC officials have met with technology company representatives who say Google gives priority to its own services on the Android platform … 

The charge is similar to that made against Microsoft many years ago, for forcing PC manufacturers to promote its Internet Explorer browser on machines shipped with Windows, a case Microsoft eventually settled.

All of this is in addition to a potential third European investigation into Google’s ad products.