The decision extends Google’s deadline from July 27 and came on the day US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was to visit EU officials in Brussels, including EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. Vestager argues that “magnificent innovation doesn’t give you the right to deny others a fair chance to compete, innovate, and make it in these markets”. “It means that customers don’t always see the most relevant results to their query”.
Advertisement
Vestager said Google “has hindered competition” by limiting the ability for competitors to place advertisements for their services on third party websites.
The EU antitrust regulator has brought a third accusation against Google’s parent company Alphabet.
On Thursday, regulators tried to undercut one of Google’s central arguments against the charges, which is that the online shopping market is increasingly competitive because many shoppers skip search and go directly to rival platforms like Amazon and eBay, especially with the explosion of smartphones.
That relates to Google’s “AdSense for Search” platform, where Google acts as an intermediary for websites such as those of online retailers, telecoms operators or newspapers, with searches producing results that include search ads. Google and Alphabet have eight weeks to respond to this claim.
The EC explained that it has further evidence that Google promotes its own services at the expense of rivals’ to the “detriment of consumers” and that this “stifles innovation”.
As the commission points out, holding a dominant position within a market isn’t a problem, but abusing that to restrict competition would be.
Showcase Shopping ads be available to retailers in the coming weeks, with retailers in the US, UK, and Australia eligible to have their products automatically appear in Showcase ads.
Google faces fines of up to 10 percent of it annual global revenues.
The EU has expanded its investigations into Google’s business practices since Vestager took over as the bloc’s antitrust chief in late 2014.
“Additional statements of objections have proved necessary in several other complex, high-profile cases against determined opponents, including both Microsoft and Intel in the early 2000s, ” Vinje said.
Advertisement
Google was granted an extension Monday, to September 7, to respond to allegations it exerts influence over smartphone software choices to beat its competition.
