Google ditches pay-to-play Android search choice auction for free version after EU pressure
Google is ditching a massively unpopular auction format that underpins a choice screen it offers in the European Union, it said today. Eligible search providers will be able to freely participate.
The auction model was Google’s “remedy” of choice — following the 2018 EU $5 billion antitrust enforcement against Android — but rivals have always maintained it’s anything but fair, as we’ve reported previously (here, here, here).
The Android choice screen presents users in the region with a selection of search engines to choose as a default at the point of device set up (or factory reset). The offered choices depend on sealed bids made by search engine companies bidding to pay Google to win one of three available slots.
Google’s EU Android choice screen isn’t working say search rivals, calling for a joint process to devise a fair remedy
