Brussels, 19/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU Competition Commissioner and vice-president of the European Commission Joaquin Almunia, said in Florence on Friday 19 September: “I have now asked Google to improve the last commitments that were put forward at the end of January” and that the Commission recently described as improvable.
Responding to the accusations of abuse of their dominant position in the online search and related publicity market, Google has offered three series of commitments thus far. The most recent batch were deemed acceptable by the Commission, but it recently did a U-turn after receiving new arguments from plaintiffs. It therefore asked Google to improve on the commitments. Bloomberg quotes Almunia as saying: “They are working on this. I have not yet received their response.”
At the same time, noting the pressure on Almunia from a number of MEPs, including Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE, Spain) and Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany), the internet giant requested a meeting behind closed doors with the European Parliament in Strasbourg, which took place on Wednesday 17 September. A source says that Google's representatives didn't offer anything tangible, simply saying that they were working with the Commission. The MEPs are reported to have made a number of suggested solutions. This was the first time in two years that Google had asked to meet with MEPs to discuss the matter. MEPs also held a meeting in Strasbourg with Margrethe Vestager of Denmark, who will be the new Competition Commissioner in the Juncker Commission, where they explained to her the importance of the Google question.
Rubert Murdoch's News Corp said on 16 September that it had written Almunia a letter criticising Google's overwhelming power. (EL)