EU gives Google till July to offer fix for search dominance
Antitrust chief - 'Remedies better be good, or else'
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The EU's antitrust head honcho has said that Google has until early July to tell him how it's going to change itself enough to sort out its dominant position in the marketplace.
Google has repeatedly made out that it doesn't know what the EU's antitrust division is going on about, but is of course open to conversations with officials.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia sent the Chocolate Factory a letter towards the end of May informing it of the EU's concerns about its business practices, including possibly favouring its own services in search results, and asking the web giant to come up with some "remedies".
In a speech today, Almunia said that he wanted to give Google the chance to offer some remedy proposals so it could avoid "lengthy proceedings".
"By early July, I expect to receive from Google concrete signs of their willingness to explore this route," he said.
He also warned that if the Chocolate Factory didn't come up with anything good, it would be pursuing the case.
"In case we engage in negotiations to address our concerns and the proposals we receive turn out to be unsatisfactory, formal proceedings will continue through the adoption of a Statement of Objections*," Almunia said.
"[But] I strongly believe that users and competitors would greatly benefit from a quick resolute of the case," he added. ®
Bootnote
* The EU's statements of objections are its version of a charge sheet listing all its issues.
COMMENTS
Really couldn't care less
The reason they're in a dominant position is because they offer the best service. It's not like there aren't others out there, and its not like Google is pulling a microsoft by having itself put as the dominant search engiine on every browser.
You don't get toolbars that change your search to google with every file you install, you don't have adverts on TV telling you to use google because its better than everything else.
They just have a better service plain and simple. I mean I can understand antitrust suits when it comes to companies who are giving people giant wods of cash to block others out of the market, but google aren't doing that.
I'd rather see them use anti-trust suits against companies that actually are causing harm like british gas, or BT for owning the entire infrastructure.
Re: I'm curious.
Allegedly fiddling search results and pushing their own services to the top of the pile?
"The EU's antitrust head honcho has said that Google has until early July to tell him how it's going to change itself enough to sort out its dominant position in the marketplace."
An easy strategy - just be like Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing.
Whether or not Google would be advised to do this is another question.
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