Google will show more mobile search apps to choose from on new Android phones in Europe and make participation free for search providers
- Company will show more mobile search apps and get rid of a fee — Google has faced criticism over compliance with an EU order
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's EU choice screen has been a rolling remedy since 2019, when it first committed to asking Android users to pick a browser and search app (in response to Commission antitrust concerns) and then settled on showing five alternatives via Google Play. In 2020 it turned placement into a quarterly auction, charging rivals like Bing for slots — a mechanism that drew criticism as pay-to-play compliance.
Today's move abandons that fee model entirely and widens the number of search apps shown on new European devices, effectively conceding that the auction design was undermining the remedy's purpose. For alternative search engines, the gatekeeping cost just dropped to zero.
First-order effects
- Search providers that were paying for quarterly auction slots — Bing among them, which had bought UK-only visibility — can now appear on the choice screen at no cost, competing on relevance rather than bids.
Second-order effects
- With fees removed, Google gives up auction revenue but buys credibility with the Commission; rivals gain free access to every new Android activation in Europe, raising the stakes on their ability to convert one-time prompts into defaults.
Third-order effects
- If regulators keep auditing remedy mechanics rather than just their existence, default-choice screens across EU antitrust cases may converge toward non-priced, expanded-option formats — making paid slot auctions untenable wherever they're tried.
The trend: EU antitrust remedies are shifting from monetized compliance mechanisms toward free, broader-choice designs as regulators police how remedies actually perform.