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Harvard professor accuses Google of anti-competitive practices

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By John Glenday, Reporter

February 17, 2014 | 1 min read

A Harvard professor has accused Google of anti-competitive practices owing to its restrictive contracts with smartphone manufacturers over the use of its Android operating system.

Whilst acknowledging that the software is ‘open’ and ‘fosters competition’ Prof Ben Edelman warned that its contracts ‘harm consumers’ by insisting that they pre-install all Google’s applications; including Google Search, Gmail and Maps as a single package– even if they wish to install just one of these apps.

Edelman based his conclusions on a contract given to HTC which included the proviso that Google is made the ‘default search provider for all web search access points’.

The Harvard prof wrote in a blog post: “Alternative vendors of search, maps, location, email, and other apps cannot out compete Google on the merits.”

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