It seems that European competition watchdog is planning to start formal proceedings against Google due to antitrust complaints.
Industry experts believed that there was hope Google might come to agreement with the EU Competition Commissioner before it got to court. However, recently he said that it hasn’t happened yet.
The problem is in the way the search engine promotes its services in its own search results. This issue is still not solved even as the parties prepare for a huge court case that might result in a fine equal to 10% of Google’s profits.
The search engine was reported to offer concessions to the EC this past July, but the European Commission still hasn’t decided if these will work. Perhaps, they want to talk to the businesses who suffered. The complaints from the companies were first received from French and British search engines two years ago and were followed by more than a dozen others.
The EC had to carry a full investigation in order to find out whether the search giant unfairly penalized its competitors a year ago. The EC Competition Commissioner explained that he has ordered his people to engage into technical discussions with the search giant to find out a solution to the problem. However, he warned that if the solution is not found, he would have to start formal proceedings.
This is not the only problem Google faces. According to other allegations, the company has illegally copied travel and restaurant reviews from its rivals. In addition, Google has contractual restrictions preventing advertisers from switching to other search engines. As such, the European Commission is trying to press the case instead of letting it get bogged down. Actually, when having a court case in the background, Google will focus its attention on it and might be forced to more concessions.
Industry experts believed that there was hope Google might come to agreement with the EU Competition Commissioner before it got to court. However, recently he said that it hasn’t happened yet.
The problem is in the way the search engine promotes its services in its own search results. This issue is still not solved even as the parties prepare for a huge court case that might result in a fine equal to 10% of Google’s profits.
The search engine was reported to offer concessions to the EC this past July, but the European Commission still hasn’t decided if these will work. Perhaps, they want to talk to the businesses who suffered. The complaints from the companies were first received from French and British search engines two years ago and were followed by more than a dozen others.
The EC had to carry a full investigation in order to find out whether the search giant unfairly penalized its competitors a year ago. The EC Competition Commissioner explained that he has ordered his people to engage into technical discussions with the search giant to find out a solution to the problem. However, he warned that if the solution is not found, he would have to start formal proceedings.
This is not the only problem Google faces. According to other allegations, the company has illegally copied travel and restaurant reviews from its rivals. In addition, Google has contractual restrictions preventing advertisers from switching to other search engines. As such, the European Commission is trying to press the case instead of letting it get bogged down. Actually, when having a court case in the background, Google will focus its attention on it and might be forced to more concessions.
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