Brussels, 28/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On 28 January, the committee on economic and monetary affairs of the European Parliament adopted the annual report on the competition policy drafted by Denmark's Morten Messerschmidt (ECR).
The text includes a paragraph on the American giant Google, under the impetus of, notably, Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (ALDE, Spain) and the German MEPs Markus Ferber and Werner Langen of the EPP group. In this paragraph, the parliamentary committee regrets the fact that after four years of investigation and three sets of commitment proposals from the American giant, the Commission has achieved “no demonstrable results” in addressing the main competition concern, namely the preferential treatment by Google of its own services in online search queries (see EUROPE 11206 and 11216). The MEPs reiterate the need for an urgent resolution of the Google case to ensure a level playing field if its digital agenda strategy is to remain credible. The Commission is called upon to take strong measures based on the non-discrimination principle against competition infringements. In a more general paragraph on the digital single market, the MEPs call upon the Commission to review its competition instruments to determine whether they are adapted to the digital age. The plenary vote will be held in March. (EL)