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Following up on the Digital Markets Act, the European Union is launching a “non-compliance investigation” into Alphabet, specifically centered around Google Search and specific rules in the Play Store.

Google’s dominance over the online ad market has been scrutinized time and time again, and this week the European Union is expressing its concerns that Google has breached the EU’s antitrust laws, and that the company should break up its ad business.

While the Android ecosystem as a whole has been getting better about long-term support and the speed of updates, EU lawmakers are now pushing for a set standard for Android updates that just so happens to mirror what Google offers on the Pixel 6.

Alongside other responses, Google announced this evening that its Voice VoIP service and Fi MVNO are waiving calling fees to Ukraine. The company also provided an update on Project Shield protections.

While the US and other regions are shining more of a spotlight on Google and the Play Store, the EU has already issued a 2018 ruling that imposed Google with a $5 billion fine over anticompetitive practices on Android. Google is fighting that fine, and slamming EU regulators over turning a blind eye to Apple.

As Google tests out its replacement for third-party cookies, the Federated Learning of Cohorts, the company has faced a lot of scrutinies for the initiative. Now, some regulators in the EU are raising concerns about FLoC as well that could spell trouble for the future of Google’s initiative.

Last year, Google announced that it had plans to acquire the popular wearable maker Fitbit, something that’s raised both hope and concern from users. This week, the European Data Protection Board is raising flags regarding Google’s Fitbit acquisition, calling it a privacy risk.

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Earlier this year, the European Union finalized a Copyright Directive aimed at getting tech companies to pay a license every time a story snippet or summary appears in Search. Google today announced that it will be removing snippets from news results in France starting next month.

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Google has been fined $1.69 billion after EU regulators claimed that the tech company abused its own search system to essentially force third-party sites to use the AdSense network over other rival online ad serving companies.

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Alphabet Class A shares ($GOOGL) hit new record highs today, soaring past the $1,000 per share mark. Alphabet Inc Class A is up 7.80 points on the day, or 0.78%. Alphabet Inc Class C, on the other hand, is straddling the line just below the $1,000 mark, sitting at 983.28 at the time of this writing and up nearly the same amount.

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Google CEO Larry Page speaks at a news conference at the Google offices in New York, Monday, May 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Last week, USA Today shared an article reporting that President-elect Donald Trump has invited top technology leaders to a summit in Manhattan at Trump Tower on December 14. The invitations were reportedly sent by his campaign manager, Reince Priebus, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and transition advisor, Peter Thiel.

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Walgreens today announced that its loyalty rewards program is now integrated with Android Pay at checkout, making it the first retail store location to support the feature through Google’s Android-based payments service.

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In this week’s top stories:  A first look at the iris scanner on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note 7, new Huawei devices, hands-on with the Moto G4 and G4 Plus, and the Pokemon Go craze continues. 
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In this week’s top stories: Our roundups of the best Android phones and best budget Android phones for July, Pokemon GO’s official release takes over the app charts, Android One launches in Japan, and much more. Head below for these and the rest of this week’s most shared stories.

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The European Union has already filed two sets of antitrust charges against Google, the first accusing it of manipulating search results to favor its own products, the second alleging that Google forces Android device manufacturers to install its own apps and set Google search as the default.

Last summer, it was reported that the company may face a third antitrust case in Europe, this time for abusing its dominant position in advertising, and the WSJ reports that the EU is currently preparing to files these charges, possibly next month …

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In this week’s top stories: We breakdown the best Android phones you can buy right now, get a closer look at upcoming Android devices including the OnePlus 3, Galaxy Note, and Project Tango devices, and give you the latest app news and updates alongside our picks for the best 5 Android apps you should download this month. 
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We had heard that the EU was planning to levy a substantial fine on Google for its alleged favoring of its own services in search over those belonging to competitors last year already, and the Telegraph is reporting that the European Commission is now estimating a hefty €3 billion ($3.4b) tag…
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In this week’s top Google stories: new Android device news surrounding the Galaxy Note 6, the death of the Nexus 9, Huawei’s upcoming P9 flagship, and more. And we went hands-on with LeEco’s new Snapdragon 820-powered Le Max2 w/ 6GB of RAM, the BlackBerry PRIV running Android Marshmallow, and the Oppo F1 Plus in this week’s top videos.

In addition, HP and Google launched the impressive new Chromebook 13, and a handful of notable Google and Android app updates arrived as well as news of a completely overhauled design for Instagram in testing.

Head below for all of the quick links to this weeks top stories, videos and more. 

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