Brussels, 11/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The hostility by Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger and eight fellow commissioners to the agreement that might soon be signed between US internet giant Google and DG Competition at the European Commission has given MEPs hope that another outcome is possible to the one they fear of insufficient commitments to remedy the problems.
In February, as part of an investigation by the European Commission following a number of complaints, Google made commitments to answer the accusations of abuse of its dominant position in the online search market. If the Commission accepts the commitments, they will be made binding for five years.
At a meeting of the College of Commissioners this week, nine commissioners, including Oettinger and Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, criticised the pledges made by Google. At a hearing at the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee on 18 March, Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he doubted the arguments by the plaintiffs would change his view. Emmanuel Foulon, a spokesman for MEP Marc Tarabella (S&D, Belgium), who is responsible for consumer protection, said the Commission was going to contact the parties, but would not necessarily take any notice of what they say. On Thursday, Tarabella urged the Commission in a written question on the subject to rule that the agreement would not only fail to punish the guilty company, but would protect it from European anti-trust law for five years! Almunia said that the Commission would not allow its hands to be tied by the five-year period and would issue penalties against the company if it failed to keep its commitments. Foulon suggested that a number of MEPs are starting to give up, aware that nothing can be done because the Commission alone has decision-making powers here. An informal meeting may take place in Strasbourg next week with Commissioner Almunia, but the idea is more to get the Commissioners' who have not yet spoken out to come out of the closet, said Foulon. A majority vote in the College of Commissioners is needed for the commitments to be accepted, explained Oettinger in an article in Bild at the weekend. German and Spanish MEPs Andreas Schwab (EPP) and Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE) also asked questions in writing of the Commission last week, wanting to know the difference between the current commitments and the previous ones that were deemed unacceptable.
A closed-door meeting was held in March in which a number of MEPs asked the Commissioner why he felt the new commitments went far enough (see EUROPE 11040). Foulon said that this meeting had been arranged by the Spanish commissioner for the very day and time of the debate on data protection, in which a number of the MEPs concerned would be involved. This had not gone down well in Parliament. Almunia told them that the Commission was in the process of responding to each complainant company. It will await their comments before taking a decision. Last week, the European consumer organisation BEUC decided to become a complainant in this affair, after it received from the Commission responses which it felt fell short of what was required. (EL)