Google will let Android users in Europe choose their default search engine starting in 2020; inclusion on the choice screen will be determined via auction
Only the top-three bidders will appear alongside Google on the choice screen — Starting in early 2020, Google will present …
The VergeThomas Ricker
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the third step in Google's run of EU antitrust concessions. After [[a:939686|committing in March to ask new Android users in Europe to pick their browser and search apps]], Google followed in April by surfacing five alternative search and browser options inside Google Play. The August announcement adds the contentious detail: which rivals actually get on the choice screen will be decided by auction, with only the top three bidders shown alongside Google.
The auction design is what made this remedy controversial — and the arc that follows proves it didn't hold. By January 2020 Google was running it as a quarterly auction for Android search privileges across the EU, with Bing appearing only in the UK for one quarter. By mid-2021, under continued pressure, Google had dropped fees entirely and begun showing more search apps for free.
First-order effects
Search rivals competing for European Android defaults — Bing among them per the later auction results — now face a pay-to-play gate: without a winning bid, they get no exposure on the choice screen at all.
Google converts a regulatory remedy into a revenue line, charging competitors for access to their own potential users starting in early 2020.
Second-order effects
A quarterly auction cadence forces rivals into recurring bidding wars against each other rather than against Google, letting the auction price — not product quality — determine which alternatives Europeans ever see.
The structure invites regulator and rival backlash, since charging competitors for an antitrust remedy reads as profiting from the violation; that pressure is what pushed Google to make participation free by 2021.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, EU remedies for default-setting power move from one-time behavioral fixes to continuously negotiated market structures — with the platform collecting rent either way until regulators force the model open.
Default screens become a contested regulatory artifact: whoever controls the slot-allocation mechanism controls effective search competition in Europe, making the allocation rule itself the battleground.
The trend: EU antitrust pressure is pushing mobile platforms from paid default auctions toward free, expanded choice screens, with the remedy's design — not just its existence — becoming the fight.
1) A “ballot box” screen could be an excellent way to increase meaningful consumer choice if designed properly. Unfortunately, Google's announcement today will not meaningfully deliver consumer choice. https://twitter.com/...
LIVE: An active test of European users interacting with Google's new EU Android “Choice Screen” https://app.usabilityhub.com/ ... Early results show that after paying Google for the privilege to appear, 3 non-Google search competitors will share 4% of the market. 🙃https://www.tec…
Why is Margrethe Vestager praised as some kind of relentless/effective regulator of tech for EU rather than a VP-of-Policy-in-training for Google or Facebook? https://techcrunch.com/...
How is regulating tech giants going? In Europe, Google *auctions off* its search options for cash. That's a nice f*** you to the injured parties. https://www.android.com/... It's supposed to be a remedy, and instead Google just made it its own cash bonus for abusing its monopoly.
Google is opening a “sealed” auctioning process that will allow third-party search providers to bid for inclusion on a “choice screen” that appears when users set up their Android phone https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/ ... https://twitter.com/...
As the Bloomberg article observes, Microsoft didn't get to establish a per-user tollway and profit from its settlment on IE. Google had been slapped with a multibillion-euro fine. It's the search providers who were presumably injured, but now they pay, not Google?
Google will require rivals to bid in order to become listed as alternative search providers on Android smartphones. The tech giant is trying to to keep deeper competition scrutiny at bay https://www.bloomberg.com/...
You have to admire the sheer audacity of Google. It's a monopoly and now it wants to get out of the EU search judgment by forcing competitors to PAY to be part of a ballot screen on Android. Amazing scenes https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Google to auction slots on Android default search ‘choice screen’ in Europe next year, rivals cry ‘pay-to-play’ foul https://techcrunch.com/... by @riptari https://twitter.com/...
European Android users are going to get a new setup dialog for choosing a default search provider early next year. This will also change what is used for the search box on the home screen and in Chrome. https://www.blog.google/...