Brussels, 01/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has given itself until the spring of next year to find a solution to the dispute with Google, hoping this will take the form of an out-of-court settlement with the internet giant with binding voluntary commitments in the short-term, rather than infringement proceedings and a fine, that would have dragged the case out for years, to the detriment of web users.
This was explained by EU Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia on 1 October at the European Parliament, which was examining the Google case. He pointed out that the Commission's anti-trust investigation into the American company, which opened in November 2010, focussed on four points (see EUROPE 10755) and new commitments are currently being discussed with Google to solve the problems raised, commitments that he said were significant improvements on those made in the spring of this year. 1) Concerning the favourable treatment, within Google's web search results, of links to Google's own specialised web search services as compared to links to competing specialised web search services: he said Google's proposals would make competitors' links more visible by giving them the option of adding a logo, along with new auction mechanisms for competitors to display their links on the search page; 2) Concerning the use by Google, without consent, of original content from third party web sites in its own specialised web search services: Almunia said the opt-out procedures would be made clearer and Google has promised to not retaliate against sites that opt out; 3) Concerning conditions on publishers preventing them from displaying search advertisements from Google's competitors on their websites and contractual restrictions on advertisers preventing them from porting and managing their search advertising campaigns across Google's and competing search advertising platforms: Google has promised extra guarantees that it will remove these conditions.
The Commissioner says the commitments look satisfactory and over the next few months he will finalise with Google their legal wording and submit them to plaintiffs and other interested parties for comments, hoping to reach a formal decision in the spring of 2014. (FG/transl.fl)