The story behind Google's secret offer to settle EU’s Android probe

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European Union Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager coolly hit Google with a €4.3bil (RM20.4bil) fine last week, the biggest penalty in the history of antitrust enforcement. It didn't have to be that way.

A year earlier, when the company – already reeling from a €2.4bil (RM11.4bil) fine in another EU case – made quiet attempts to settle the probe into deals it has with Android phone makers, the response was equally chilly. The Silicon Valley search giant had waited at least a year too long to broach the subject of a settlement, the 50-year-old Vestager said in an interview.