European authorities are accusing Google with abusing its power in order to favor its own online tools over those of smaller competitors, the latest in a drawn-out antitrust case.
The “Statement of Objections” alleges that Google has been “systematically favouring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages” and that such action “stifles competition and harms consumers.”
It is the fourth time in five years that the European Commission has gone after the search company, having previously rejected three settlement offers from Google over similar charges.
It is a familiar compliant to one Google has previously faced in Europe as well as in the U.S., but with one new addition.
This time the EU is also opening a case to look at its mobile operating system Android.
“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,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, in a press release.
Google faces a fine and could be forced to change its practices if found guilty by the commission.
On its European policy blog, Google pushed back against the charges, arguing that Android is far more open that its competitors and allows people to easily access competitors’ apps.
The post was not shy about calling out other mobile operating systems, particularly apple. Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of engineering for Android, wrote that “other mobile ecosystems that come preloaded with similar baseline apps.
And remember that these distribution agreements are not exclusive, and Android manufacturers install their own apps and apps from other companies as well. And in comparison to Apple—the world’s most profitable (mobile) phone company—there are far fewer Google apps pre-installed on Android phones than Apple apps on iOS devices.”
In a separate post, Google also claimed that there is “more choice than ever before” when it comes to online search.
“Any economist would say that you typically do not see a ton of innovation, new entrants or investment in sectors where competition is stagnating — or dominated by one player. Yet that is exactly what’s happening in our world,” wrote Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search.”
Europe has been more aggressive than the U.S. when it comes to Internet regulation particularly of powerful companies, leading Google to be a near-constant subject of scrutiny.
In addition to the multi-year antitrust efforts, the European Court of Justice ruled in May 2014, that people have a “right to be forgotten,” and can petition Google to have things removed from search results on the basis that old results can be irrelevant or misleading.
At the end of 2014, Google announced that it would shut down Google News in Spain due to the country’s laws that require a media outlet to be compensated for the aggregation of news snippets or links.
Google may seem like the biggest kid on the playground in the U.S., but in Europe it might as well be the only one, enjoying a dominant 90% of the search market there.
Google also narrowly avoided an antitrust case in the U.S. after documents showed that one Federal Trade Commission report had recommended filing a lawsuit against the search company.
Source: mashable.com