Summary: After being fined to pay 4.4 bn EUR and ordered to change license policies for Europe, Google now offers the possibility to license the bare OS and Maps, Search and the Chrome browser separately. Preinstallation of all Google apps is no longer necessary.
Also, Android forks are now officially allowed. This is effective immediately, so the annouced lawsuit against the decision of the EU commission does not delay this change.
Here’s an English article straight from the source:
What you didn’t mention is this part:
So it is going to cost money to have Android installed in EEA. Though devices such as Chinaware will omit this tax. Don’t get me wrong; I believe such a model (akin to Jolla’s Sailfish) is more fair. Open source does not have to be free (as in beer / gratis).
If you like, you should be able to edit it yourself. However, I don’t see a need for editing the post. Through discussion we reached a common consensus.
I believe the interesting news is, that from now on you are allowed to build a phone comprising of Android, Playstore, Google Maps, Firefox Clear and K-9. You can now leave out software you do not want, like GMail or Chrome. Also, now it is possible to have phones with Lineage AND with regular Android, previously Googles licensing wanted you to only use original Android and no forks, or you would lose the ability to have Android…
Rumours about the cost are as much as 40 USD (35 EUR) per phone, depending on pixel density. Though if all GApps are bundled Google may (partly or completely) forfeit these extra costs.