IndustryWill Google’s Proposed Search Fixes End EU Antitrust Case?

Will Google's Proposed Search Fixes End EU Antitrust Case?

Google has presented a list of concessions in a bid to address the European Union's concerns and put an end to a two-year long antitrust probe into its search business. Google wants to avoid paying out a massive fine and facing more legal action.

google-logo-magnifying-glassGoogle has submitted proposals to address European Union (EU) concerns that the company, which owns a dominating 90 percent of the search market in Europe, is guilty of discriminating against rivals, Bloomberg reported.

The search giant hopes the concessions will put an end to the EU’s two-year long antitrust probe. By committing to a group of fixes, Google aims to avoid paying out a massive EU fine and facing greater legal action.

Google’s concessions will now reportedly be adopted into a “market test” where Google competitors can offer feedback on the fixes. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia didn’t offer a detailed account of what sort of concessions Google has agreed to.

The antitrust case goes back to late 2010. Google competitors have repeatedly accused the firm of owning a vertical search monopoly. Competitors say that Google manipulates its results by heavily featuring its own products and services.

Companies known to have complained to the EU include Microsoft. The firm remains one of Google’s main search competitors. Microsoft’s search engine Bing has owned a small margin of the search market.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission closed its 19-month search antitrust probe earlier this year after deciding that Google’s demotion of competing websites was justifiable.

Google has been barraged with legal complaints over the years. Most recently, the EU has questioned whether Googles’s unified privacy policy is legal, and was sued by Foundem, which has been working with Microsoft and the FairSearch players, for anti-competitive conduct.

This article was originally published on V3.

Resources

The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

whitepaper | Analytics The 2023 B2B Superpowers Index

8m
Data Analytics in Marketing

whitepaper | Analytics Data Analytics in Marketing

10m
The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

whitepaper | Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

1y
Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

whitepaper | Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

1y