Brussels, 23/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - On 11 June, Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia wrote to the other European commissioners to explain why a number of recent complaints will not be taken into account in the Google case.
In February 2014, the US internet giant offered commitments to respond to the accusations of abuse of its dominant position on the online search advertising market. Almunia hopes to issue the final decision after the summer break.
Bloomberg says Almunia feels the complaints from European publishers and Deutsche Telekom “either came too late or raise concerns on practices and markets that lie beyond” the Commission's investigation and adding them to the current investigation “would have produced unnecessary delays”. He said the Commission “might open new proceedings” to deal with the new complaints and his department was “looking very closely into how Google and other multinational companies comply with the legal tax framework ».
The Commission sent letters to the plaintiff companies explaining why it feels that Google's commitments go far enough on the four main issues of concern to the Commission. Last week, Michael Weber, the boss of Hot Maps, one of the plaintiff companies, told this newsletter that he still hopes to win over the Commission (see EUROPE 11102).
Nine European commissioners, including Guenther Oettinger of Germany and Michel Barnier of France, say that Google's commitments are not good enough. Almunia says in his letter that he “may reflect on possible ways to improve them” (the commitments) if the plaintiffs provide tangible evidence. If an agreement with Google is done on the basis of the commitments unveiled in February, Weber said some plaintiff companies may take a case to the European Court of Justice. (EL)