The idea for DuckDuckGo came partly from a stained glass class. According to Vestager, its Android practices “denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits.” Google is appealing the decision. The market is mostly Android devices, but Google also pays billions to Apple to be the default search engine in the Safari browser on iOS.

In Europe, more than 95 per cent of all searches on mobile are made through Google. Google’s actions, the Commission said, helped it to cement its dominance in the mobile search industry. Google, it said, had required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search and Chrome apps if they wanted to license the Google Play app store had paid mobile network operators and phone manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google Search and had prevented manufacturers from creating alternative versions of Android without its approval if they wanted to pre-install any Google apps. The Commission accused Google of three unfair tactics. At the end of an investigation spanning more than three years, the Commission concluded that Google had acted illegally in using Android to ensure that traffic went to Google Search instead of its competitors. Being big isn’t illegal, but the European Commission says dominant companies have a 'special responsibility' not to abuse their powerful market position by restricting competition.

Duck duck go android