The European Commission is investigating whether Google is illegally hindering Android's rivals

The European Commission has announced that it's going to launch a formal antitrust investigation into whether Google is unfairly bundling its apps on Android.

In fact, it's a little more than that, as there will be three key areas to the investigation.

1. Whether Google is illegally hindering its rivals by requiring or incentivising smartphone and tablet manufacturers to exclusively pre-install Google's own applications or services.

2. Whether Google has prevented those manufacturers from developing and marketing modified and potentially competing versions of Android.

3. And whether Google has illegally hindered the development and market access of rival applications and services by tying or bundling certain Google applications and services on Android devices.

Google has responded to the Commission in order to defend itself.

Regarding Google's partner agreements - which it points out are voluntary - it says there are real benefits, such as the anti-fragmentation agreements. According to Google, these "ensure apps work across all sorts of different Android devices."

Further, Google says that its "app distribution agreements make sure that people get a great 'out of the box' experience with useful apps right there on the home screen."

The Commission's investigation has now started and will be finished whenever it deems it is time.