Brussels, 05/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - After more than three years of tough talks and investigations, the European Commission is planning to accept the new commitments proposed on 15 January by US internet giant Google in response to the Commission's accusations of Google's abusing its dominant position on the internet search and search advertising market (see also EUROPE 11008), said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia on Wednesday 5 February. He said that a formal decision making the commitments binding for five years would be taken over the next few months after meetings with 18 of Google rivals whose complaints gave rise to the investigation.
To respond to the complaints of preference given, within Google's web search results, of Google's own specialised web search services as compared to competing specialised web search services (i.e. services allowing users to search for specific categories of information, such as restaurants, hotels or products), Google has now agreed to guarantee that whenever it promotes its own specialised search services on its web page (e.g. for products, hotels, restaurants, etc.), the services of three rivals, selected through an objective method, will also be displayed in a way that is clearly visible to users and comparable to the way in which Google displays its own services.
On the complaint about the use by Google without consent of original content from third-party web sites in its own specialised web search services (such as customer reviews on goods, hotels, etc.), Google has promised to provide suppliers with the option of refusing (without penalty) to allow their content to be displayed in Google's specialised web search results.
On the agreements that oblige third party web sites (“publishers”) to obtain all or most of their online search advertisements from Google and the contractual restrictions on the transferability of online search advertising campaigns to rival search advertising platforms and the management of such campaigns across Google's Adwords and rival search advertising platforms, Google has pledged to scrap the contractual restrictions.
The commitments only cover the European market (searches using a European IP number) and will apply for five years. They will be monitored by an independent body to be selected by the Commission, which will publish regular reports. The Commission views the commitments as satisfactory because they are verifiable and will last for five years in a fast-changing environment. The Commission will in the coming period inform the complainants in this case of the reasons why it believes Google's offer is capable of addressing the Commission's concerns. The complainants will then have the opportunity to make their views known to the Commission before the Commission takes a final decision on whether to make the commitments legally binding on Google. Almunia said this would take place over the next few months and Google was also being investigated for its Android system for mobile phones and its acquisition of Motorola. (FG/transl.fl)