Google Strikes back in opposition to Europe’s Antitrust prices

Google revealed a weblog put up on Thursday responding to the ecu fee’s claims that a few of its practices are anti-aggressive. The fee, which acts as the manager physique of the eu Union, filed formal antitrust charges against Google in April 2015, alleging that its search outcomes unfairly ranked its personal purchasing carrier over rivals.

In a weblog post titled, “making improvements to high quality isn’t anti-aggressive,” Google known as the ecu commission’s conclusions “wrong in point of fact, regulation, and economics.” The put up persisted:

We’ve taken seriously the troubles in the European fee’s remark of Objections (SO) that our improvements are anti-competitive. The response we filed these days displays why we imagine these allegations are flawed, and why we believe that Google will increase choice for European customers and deals treasured opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

The SO says that Google’s displays of paid commercials from retailers (and, in the past, of specialized groups of organic search results) “diverted” site visitors far from buying services and products. however the SO does not again up that claim, does not counter the numerous advantages to consumers and advertisers, and would not provide a transparent prison thought to connect its claims with its proposed treatment.

Google mentioned it has supplied the european commission with evidence that its shopping carrier does now not hinder competition. according to Google, that proof contains economic data from over a decade, together with web visitors analysis of Google display commercials and search results.

“The universe of purchasing services and products has considered an incredible elevate in traffic from Google, various new gamers, new investments, and expanding shopper option,” the weblog publish referred to. “Google delivered greater than 20 billion free clicks to aggregators over the last decade in the countries covered by the SO, with free site visitors increasing by 227% (and complete site visitors growing even more).”

If the ecu fee finds Google responsible of anti-competitive practices, the corporate may face fines of up to $6.6 billion, Re/code reports.

Google shouldn’t be the only U.S. tech firm below investigation in Europe. Amazon is going through antitrust charges associated to its e-books trade, while fb is underneath scrutiny in various European nations over user privacy concerns.

European regulators have not too long ago began pushing again more aggressively against the U.S. firms that wield vital energy in the area. the european fee has presented a proper plan to make European startups extra competitive, however the suggestion—known as the Digital Single Market—has but to be approved with the aid of the ecu Union’s member international locations.

[by the use of Re/code]