Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: European Consumer Organization Head Offers Views on Possible EU Antitrust Settlement with Google, (Oct 31, 2012)

By William Zale, J.D.

European consumers’ “right to receive impartial results” in Internet searches and privacy concerns should be considered by EU antitrust regulators in settlement discussions with Google, according to Monique Goyens, Director General of the European consumer organization BEUC, in an October 31 letter to Joaquin Almunia, European Commissioner for Competition.

“Consumers have a right to receive impartial results based exclusively on their relevance to their queries and without manipulation according to Google’s own commercial interests,” Goyens asserted. The letter calls for structural remedies, “given the substantial risk of repeated infringements.” Simply requiring Google to label its own vertical search services would not prevent the company from manipulating the search results and from discriminating against competing services, in Goyens’ view.

As to privacy, Goyens maintained that, with Google’s ever-increasing breadth of online services, a particular user’s online activities will be traceable on a much more continuous and universal level, allowing Google to build user profiles which are much more complete. The “privacy policy of Google is directly linked to its dominance in the online search and should therefore be considered as an aggravating factor in your analysis,” Goyens added.

News: Antitrust Privacy