Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Almunia discusses EU competition enforcement and Google, (Jun 30, 2014)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

Joaquin Almunia, Vice President of the European Commission for Competition Policy, discussed challenges posed by the digital economy, particularly from the rise of dominant platforms such as Google, in speech to the Chatham House Competition Policy Conference today in London.

“I believe EU public policy should pursue two main objectives in digital industries: creating the best conditions for them to flourish in Europe and, at the same time, preventing the potential risks that powerful platforms pose for businesses, users and society at large,” he stated.

According to Almunia, the European Commission found four competition concerns resulting from Google’s practices: (1) Google’s use of other websites’ original content in its web search services without prior consent; (2) exclusivity agreements imposed on publishers who want to use Google ads on their websites; (3) contractual restrictions on companies’ abilities to manage and transfer online search advertising campaigns to other platforms; and (4) Google’s display of its own specialized services over rival services.

To remedy the EC’s competition concerns, Google has proposed commitments to: (1) provide websites with the choice of opting-out of Google’s use of their original content, without any consequent to the websites’ general search rankings; (2) eliminate exclusivity requirements for publishers that want to use Google ads on their websites; (3) remove contractual restrictions on companies’ abilities to manage and transfer their online search advertising campaigns; and (4) inform users that Google’s specialized search services are different than normal search results and placing three rivals, based on relevance, next to Google’s results for user comparison.

Almunia noted that the EC has sent pre-rejection letters to every complainant, stating why the European Commission thinks Google’s proposed commitments would solve competition concerns. The complainants’ comments will then be reviewed in determining whether further improvements of the commitments are necessary.

The EC Vice President observed that there have been various other anticompetitive complaints against Google, regarding copyright, corporate taxes, data privacy, and net neutrality. However, these complaints are at the fact-finding stage. Formal proceedings have not been instituted.

“[T]he investigation shows that competition law tools are flexible enough to deal with competition concerns in industries where technology advances rapidly,” but “the Google investigation has also shown that one competition case should not be used as a proxy to address wide-ranging issues going beyond the scope of competition policy raised by the business practices of international, unregulated, and dominant platforms,” Almunia said.

Companies: Google Inc.

News: Antitrust