Alphabet Inc’s Google is the subject of an antitrust investigation, which combats monopolistic practices, by European Union regulators. News agencies MLex and Reuters released a piece of information.
What is at stake is the fact that, supposedly, manufacturers are forced to install Google Assistant as a standard voice assistant on Android devices, blocking the use of third parties.
However, the research giant has already reacted to this new research and claims that manufacturers are free to choose the voice assistant they want to install on their mobile devices.
Google also adds that users themselves can also choose another voice assistant, since the option is available in the menus of the device.
The European Union questions exclusivity
So far, the European Union has not responded to Google’s statement, now referring to the Margrethe Vestager conference. In this speech, the European Commissioner for the contest revealed that the European Union had received complaints related to the exclusivity of the voice assistant.
The doubts lie in whether users can use two different voice assistants at the same time or if there are irregularities in the certification process to guarantee the exclusivity of Google in this function. This will be a thorough investigation and therefore no results and / or sanctions are expected before 2022.
Currently, the market for voice assistant functionality includes some of the major tech giants like Apple with Siri and Alexa with Amazon. On the other hand, the fact that these voice assistants have access to a large amount of data generated by their users will also get the full attention of antitrust regulators.
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