Brussels, 21/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner for the Digital Economy Günther Oettinger has again said that he had not ruled out the possibility of bringing in a tax on Google and other US companies that do not abide by European rules. “That is an option but not the decided solution. … Maybe a few months and then we will develop a formal plan, a complete architecture, and then we will come to a decision”, he said in an interview on Tuesday 20 January. He feels that Google's proposals to address the EU's antitrust concerns were “not really convincing”” and hopes that the American company will bring forward further commitments. “They have to accept our legal and cultural rules.” Aside from the Google case, Oettinger was critical of US companies which “are investing in member states with a low level of data protection, coming into the internal market and using all the data they can get in the whole EU”. For that reason, a regulation on data protection, with a common level and common standards, “is the best answer for companies outside Europe”. The Commissioner is also keen on copyright reform, to end the fragmentation in the EU which American companies can take advantage of. He said he was “quite optimistic (of getting) a balanced solution between the internet community and intellectual (property) owners”. (IL)