European Commission Probes Allegations of Antitrust Violations by Google
The European Commission has decided to open an antitrust
investigation into allegations that Google has abused a dominant
position in online search, in violation of European Union rules. Google
is accused of intentionally altering search results to harm competition.
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.
Google's internet search engine provides for two types of results
when people are searching for information. These are unpaid search
results, which are sometimes also referred to as "natural", "organic" or
"algorithmic" search results, and third party advertisements shown at
the top and at the right hand side of Google's search results page.
The commission will investigate whether Google has abused a dominant
market position in online search by allegedly lowering the ranking of
unpaid search results of competing services which are specialised in
providing users with specific online content such as price comparisons
and by according preferential placement to the results of its own
vertical search services in order to shut out competing services.
The
commission will also look into allegations that Google lowered the
"quality score" for sponsored links of competing vertical search
services. The quality score is one of the factors that determine the
price paid to Google by advertisers.
The commission's probe will additionally focus on allegations that
Google imposes exclusivity obligations on advertising partners,
preventing them from placing certain types of competing ads on their web
sites, as well as on computer and software vendors, with the aim of
shutting out competing search tools. Finally, it will investigate
suspected restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign
data to competing online advertising platforms.
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.
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