Brussels, 29/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 28 October, the European Commission sent questionnaires to Google's competitors, asking them to respond within a month and comment on the proposed commitments from Google unveiled earlier this month to respond to the Commission's concerns that the internet giant is abusing its dominant position on the market (see EUROPE 10933). There seems to have been a mixed response so far, with some competitors having already rejected Google's offer.
The European Commission opened an investigation in November 2010 into the way that Google favours its own specialist services over those of its competitors, how it copies its competitors' content, signs exclusive advertising deals with partners and restricts the portability of publicity campaigns (see EUROPE 10617). After an initial series of commitments unveiled in the spring and judged insufficient by rivals, Google made new commitments that EU Competition Commissioner Joaquim Almunia said made a substantial improvement, hinting that an out-of-court settlement might be found by the spring.
In the new commitments, Google pledges to make competitors' content more visible on its search pages, and the Commission wants to know from Google's competitors (which include Microsoft) whether links to competing sites should be highlighted against a coloured or light background in the search results so as to make them more visible and distract attention from Google's own links.
Some of Google's competitors may not be happy with commitments of this type, feeling that the problem goes deeper and is due to Google's dominant position on the search market (up to 90% of all online searches in some countries and 70% in the United States), which this commitment does not address. Why get into the ins and outs of how to make links stand out using colours when what is needed is clear principles about discrimination rather than a colour code, said the legal adviser to Microsoft-backed Icomp Group in an interview with the New York Times, adding that Google has not offered to do anything to prevent the systematic appearance of its own services at the top of a results list or manipulation of the results. Similar comments were made by the director of a German mapping site, Hot-Map.com, who told the New York Times that the German company might reject the commitments and take the proceedings further, or take Google to court at the European Court of Justice.
In four weeks' time, the Commission will examine the results of the consultation and decide whether Google's commitments are satisfactory. If so, it may decide to make them binding for five years. If not, it will send Google a formal complaint and, if this is not answered satisfactorily, then it may decide to fine the internet company up to 10% of its annual turnover. (FG/transl.fl)