Microsoft leads new antitrust action against Google's Android

A coalition of companies have filed antitrust suits against Google in Europe under the auspices of an organization called Fairsearch.org.  Members of the alliance include Nokia,  Oracle, Tripadvisor and that bastion of marketplace fair play Microsoft.

The action concerns Google's behavior in the mobile market.  According to website Android Authority, "The group says in the complaint that Google is using Android “as a deceptive way to build advantages for key Google apps in 70 percent of the smart phones shipped today.”

Here's the guts of the FairSearch complaint, "“Google is using its Android mobile operating system as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to deceive partners, monopolize the mobile marketplace, and control consumer data,” said Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel to the FairSearch coalition. “We are asking the Commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market. Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google’s Android operating system."

Meanwhile, Slashgear reports that "Antitrust Chief for the EU Joaquin Almunia stated that they have been looking into Android separately from the Search issue, but a specific statement on the complaint against the mobile operating system wasn’t given. He went on to elaborate, according to the New York Times, on the search inquiry, saying that Google has offered proposals in recent days."

The latest moves ratchet up the pressure on Google which is still being investigated for alleged anti competitive behavior in the search market – basically favoring its own products in search results – which is analogous the new action being brought in the mobile space where Google is basically being accused of using market power to ensure its apps get prime placement in mobile home screens.

Not surprisingly the blogosphere is unimpressed. ReadWriteWeb noted, " You would think that an organization called Fair Search would, you know, be about search. The complaint barely mentions search at all. This is about money… not freedom of information."