Forum Moderators: goodroi
Europe Readys Anti Trust Charges against Google
The E.U. is reportedly plotting a fine as large as $6.4 billion, roughly a tenth of Google’s annual revenue.
Europe’s antitrust regulator plans to file formal charges against Google Inc. for violating antitrust laws, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday, stepping up a five-year investigation likely to become the biggest competition battle here since the European Union’s pursuit of Microsoft Corp. a decade ago.
The European Union will accuse Google on Wednesday of abusing its dominant position in Internet searches, opening the U.S. tech company up to a risk of massive fines and enforced changes in its business model, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.
....accuse Google of breaching competition law by diverting traffic from rivals to favor its own services, said the FT, adding that some fellow commissioners had been concerned Vestager was narrowing the probe.
The European Commission has sent a Statement of Objections to Google alleging the company has abused its dominant position in the markets for general internet search services in the European Economic Area (EEA) by systematically favouring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages. The Commission's preliminary view is that such conduct infringes EU antitrust rules because it stifles competition and harms consumers. Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.
The Commission has also formally opened a separate antitrust investigation into Google's conduct as regards the mobile operating system Android. The investigation will focus on whether Google has entered into anti-competitive agreements or abused a possible dominant position in the field of operating systems, applications and services for smart mobile devices. Antitrust: Commission sends Statement of Objections to Google on comparison shopping service; opens separate formal investigation on Android [europa.eu]
EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager said: "The Commission's objective is to apply EU antitrust rules to ensure that companies operating in Europe, wherever they may be based, do not artificially deny European consumers as wide a choice as possible or stifle innovation".
"In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules. Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe."
"I have also launched a formal antitrust investigation of Google’s conduct concerning mobile operating systems, apps and services. Smartphones, tablets and similar devices play an increasing role in many people's daily lives and I want to make sure the markets in this area can flourish without anticompetitive constraints imposed by any company."
I don't think there is any point in discussing if Google favors their own properties because there is enough blatant evidence to show that they do.
But do they favor their own properties in organic search results? That's the more legitimate question.
But do they favor their own properties in organic search results?
It seems that google allready took action. Google shopping ads are now on the bottom of first page on my ipad.
LOcation germany
Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times has an interesting take on the case:
As powerful as Microsoft looked at the time, officials missed ways in which it was vulnerable. For starters, they didn’t anticipate the rise of mobile devices. The 1999 ruling against Microsoft found there were “no products, nor are there likely to be any in the near future” that people around the world could use as “substitutes” for Windows computers. In fact, within a few years, unexpected rivals began making such substitutes. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone, and soon after, Google released the Android operating system, which Samsung, HTC, Motorola and other manufacturers used to take the smartphone global and mainstream.
i think they should just force them to use the tabs at the top.
Right, they should be forced to run other people's ads instead of their own. Users are being cheated because they aren't seeing Foundem ads instead of Google ads at the top of commercial SERPs.
Google is not a search engine anymore. They should not be treated as one and should compensate those whos material they use.
They should compensate for using our bandwidth and violating our copyrights when showing/hotlinking full size versions of our photos in Google Image Search. When will Europe do something about this?
France is considering a law that would force Google to reveal its most closely guarded secret — its search algorithm.
France is trying to force Google to publish its secret search algorithm [uk.businessinsider.com]
The Financial Times reports that a proposal currently making its way through the French senate could force Google to publish the details of how its search rankings are calculated.
Google, understandably, is not happy.
And, just to be clear, there is almost zero chance that Google will go along with this.
They should compensate for using our bandwidth and violating our copyrights when showing/hotlinking full size versions of our photos in Google Image Search. When will Europe do something about this?
Not sure how they would gain access to full size images if you never allowed it.
The whole case being discussed by the French is ludicrous, that is like asking Coca-Cola for their recipe (as people enjoy drinking it).
