Europe has been playing an active role for the safety of its consumers. Throughout the year, the European Parliament has taken strict actions against Google as well as Android. Currently, the Parliament is getting ready for a vote on Digital Market Act, and once again actions are on their way to build a stable European market. The main focus to ensure consumer safety is on the default settings.
The commission is working to stop Google from sticking itself as the default search engine and instead allowing users to make their own choice. According to a report, only a limited number of Internet consumers select a search engine of their own choice while ninety-five percent of the users have never taken any such action. The reason is that most of the users decide to carry on with the default setting, and the amount Google pays to other platforms to keep it as the default engine has led the company to collect almost ninety-seven percent of the search engine market share all across Europe on mobile phones.
The European Commission was pressurized by other search engines like Ecosia, as a result, Google was directed to let go of their policy based on pay to play for devices powered by Android. The company was also charged with €4.3 billion for its manipulative business.
After following the orders received by the Commission, a seven percent rise was observed in search volume in just 2 months. Based on these figures, it is expected to go up by fifty percent by next year. If Europeans are allowed to select an engine on their own, they are most likely to select an alternative source due to their privacy concerns. Though Google now offers a choice to the users, there are still some lacking as highlighted by engines such as Qwant, Liloand DuckDuckgo, in their combined letter.
The letter also talked about an issue being observed with the directed orders. Offering choice to the users is only limited to new Android devices only and as a result, the already existing devices are still stuck with Google as their default engine and as a result, the company is still able to collect a large revenue from the users.
With the Digital Market Act is reaching its final stages, the European Legislators are asked not to get pressurized by other platforms and should stay intact with the aim of keeping default settings as the top priority and ensuring that consumers are offered a fair choice while selecting their search engine with just a single tap. This is why adding default settings in the Act is going to be an important part while the European Union decides the next step to be taken.
Read next: The UK Government Takes Issue Against Bad Anti-Competitive Practices From Apple And Google
The commission is working to stop Google from sticking itself as the default search engine and instead allowing users to make their own choice. According to a report, only a limited number of Internet consumers select a search engine of their own choice while ninety-five percent of the users have never taken any such action. The reason is that most of the users decide to carry on with the default setting, and the amount Google pays to other platforms to keep it as the default engine has led the company to collect almost ninety-seven percent of the search engine market share all across Europe on mobile phones.
The European Commission was pressurized by other search engines like Ecosia, as a result, Google was directed to let go of their policy based on pay to play for devices powered by Android. The company was also charged with €4.3 billion for its manipulative business.
After following the orders received by the Commission, a seven percent rise was observed in search volume in just 2 months. Based on these figures, it is expected to go up by fifty percent by next year. If Europeans are allowed to select an engine on their own, they are most likely to select an alternative source due to their privacy concerns. Though Google now offers a choice to the users, there are still some lacking as highlighted by engines such as Qwant, Liloand DuckDuckgo, in their combined letter.
The letter also talked about an issue being observed with the directed orders. Offering choice to the users is only limited to new Android devices only and as a result, the already existing devices are still stuck with Google as their default engine and as a result, the company is still able to collect a large revenue from the users.
With the Digital Market Act is reaching its final stages, the European Legislators are asked not to get pressurized by other platforms and should stay intact with the aim of keeping default settings as the top priority and ensuring that consumers are offered a fair choice while selecting their search engine with just a single tap. This is why adding default settings in the Act is going to be an important part while the European Union decides the next step to be taken.
Read next: The UK Government Takes Issue Against Bad Anti-Competitive Practices From Apple And Google