...In a blog post on Tuesday, Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced that it will start charging phone-makers that want to pre-install some of its apps and services for devices sold in Europe. This was the entirely predictable result of an antitrust ruling by the European Commission in July, in which it imposed a record $5 billion fine on Google and demanded that it shape up without specifying exactly how.
... So now the company will start charging a licensing fee to manufacturers that want to offer Gmail, Google Maps, the Google Play store and YouTube in Europe, thereby making phones more expensive and life more difficult for businesses. It will also let phone-makers sell devices that use “forked” versions of Android in Europe, thereby degrading security and worsening inconsistencies across the ecosystem.
It’s not the end of the world. But Europe’s alleged remedy is all the more galling for being uncomprehending:
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