Commission Press Release. Brussels, 30 November 2010 Antitrust: Commission probes allegations of antitrust violations by Google The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google Inc. has abused a dominant position in online search, in violation of European Union rules (Article 102 TFEU). The opening of formal proceedings follows complaints by search service providers about unfavourable treatment of their services in Google's unpaid and sponsored search results coupled with an alleged preferential placement of Google's own services. This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of any infringements.
It only signifies that the Commission will conduct an in-depth investigation of the case as a matter of priority. Google's internet search engine provides for two types of results when people are searching for information. What is the legal base for the decision? The Commission has informed the company about this decision. Google's thought. Posted by Susan Wojcicki, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Udi Manber, Vice President, Engineering(Cross-Posted from the European Public Policy Blog) At Google, we’ve always focused on putting the user first by providing the best possible answers as quickly as possible - and our product innovation and engineering talent have delivered results that users seem to like, in a world where the competition is only one click away.
However, given our success and the disruptive nature of our business, it’s entirely understandable that we’ve caused unease among other companies and caught the attention of regulators. Today, the European Commission has announced that they will continue to review complaints about Google's search and search advertising. We respect their process and will continue to work closely with the Commission to answer their questions. Answering users' queries accurately and quickly is our number one goal. Focuses On Niche EU Competitors. The European Commission has launched an investigation into Google after three vertical search engines submitted formal complaints that the firm had use its dominant position to crowd out and disappear results from these engines – as reports various outlets including Bloomberg and the BBC.
The EU is obliged to look into whether Google has purposely lowered the search rankings of price comparison sites Foundem (UK) and Ciao (owned by the Microsoft’s Bing), and French legal search engine ejustice.fr in its results. The EU investigatation will also take in Google’s ad platform, which covers Google’s unpaid and sponsored search results and “an alleged preferential placement of Google’s own services.” We’re going to take a look at what all this means. The backround to this is that Ciao, Foundem and Ejustice.fr filed an antitrust complaint against Google in back in February. This is separate from any other EU probe Google’s has had over its StreetView service – that’s about privacy. Dark forces gunning for Google. Last week's announcement that Google is to be investigated by the EU for allegedly giving preference to its own services and advertisers in search rankings - something Google categorically denies - will come as no surprise to those watching the search giant's behaviour over the past few years.
But a key player in all of this that you might not have heard of is the Brussels-based "Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace", or ICOMP, which has been lobbying for an antitrust investigation. ICOMP is a organisation whose sole purpose appears to be to attack Google: it was set up to protest against Google's DoubleClick acquisition and has spent the last few years churning out blog posts slamming the search giant and approaching journalists out of the blue with carefully primed stories.
Why does this matter? Because ICOMP is almost entirely funded - and not always wholly transparently - by Microsoft, one of Google's main competitors in search. Rivals Say Google Plays Favorites. Google answers WSJ. Posted by Carter Maslan, Director of Product Management This Sunday the Wall Street Journal published a story about local search that makes a number of assertions about how local search works at Google, so we thought it would be helpful to share our view on these issues. When people come to Google looking for information about places like restaurants, shoe stores, parks or museums, our goal is to provide them with answers as quickly as possible and presented in a way that’s easy to read and understand.
Sometimes the most useful information is a direct link to a business—other times it’s a map or a list of review sites. As Susan and Udi wrote just over a week ago: Answering users' queries accurately and quickly is our number one goal. When someone searches for a place on Google, we still provide the usual web results linking to great sites; we simply organize those results around places to make it much faster to find what you’re looking for. Google decides that Google services are best. Strategy & managing Welcome. If you have yet to register on FT.com you will be asked to do so before you begin to read FT blogs. However, our posts remain free. This blog is mainly about business and strategy and how and why people who run companies take the decisions that they do. Your comments and criticism are welcome. To comment, please register for free with FT.com and read our policy on submitting comments. All posts are published in UK time.
Contact andrew.hill@ft.com or john.gapper@ft.com about the Business blog. See the full list of FT blogs. Google, These Aren’t Really The Best Answers For Users. They Are The Best Answers For You. Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran an article pointing out how Google is increasingly favoring its own properties, in search results over natural results to outside sites which previously commanded the top spots. This practice is especially noticeable with Google Places and local results, but there are other examples as well from product and mortgage search to health search. We’ve seen these spats before, particularly between Google and Yelp. Citysearch and Tripadvisor are also taking a traffic hit, it seems.
Google responded yesterday with a post on its public policy blog titled “Local Search: It’s all about the best answers for users.” Yeah, right. Don’t kid yourself. Is it just a coincidence that the top seven links in a row happen to be businesses with Google Places listings (which you can see by clicking on the Google Places links on the right). The Google Places results don’t always take up nearly the entire first page. Are these results better for users? Guess Who Just Gatecrashed Google’s Antitrust Case. Google could pay $500M to settle antitrust probe into ads. Google said that it is being investigated by the Department of Justice and has set aside $500 million from its first quarter income for a potential settlement of the case. The probe is looking at alleged monopolistic practices in Google’s advertising program. The information was disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Few details were disclosed about the investigation. “In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2011,” Google said in the regulatory filing. “Although we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter, we believe it will not have a material adverse effect on our business, consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.” French Competition Authority. L'Autorité de la concurrence estime que Google est en position dominante sur le marché de la publicité liée aux moteurs de recherche. Elle estime que le droit de la concurrence peut mettre des bornes aux agissements de Google et répondre aux enjeux concurrentiels soulignés par les acteurs sans qu'il soit nécessaire de mettre en place une régulation d'ensemble du secteur.
Elle propose des réponses ciblées aux préoccupations identifiées. > English version L'Autorité de la concurrence a été saisie pour avis en février 2010 par le ministre de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Emploi, au sujet du fonctionnement de la concurrence dans le secteur de la publicité en ligne, en application de l'article L. 462-1 du code de commerce. Internet occupe une place croissante dans la vie quotidienne des individus et des ménages comme dans la sphère marchande. Les moteurs de recherche, et particulièrement Google sont devenus le point d'entrée de la navigation en ligne.
Le cas particulier de la presse. Google in anti-trust talks with the EU.