Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: European Parliament urges EC to consider “unbundling” Google search, other services, (Dec 2, 2014)

By Brian Hammond,TRDaily

The European Parliament voted last week to approve a resolution recommending a series of steps aimed at "break[ing] down barriers to the growth of the EU's digital single market" and urging the European Commission to consider "unbundling" Google, Inc.'s search operations from its other services.

In addition to the controversial search engine provisions, the measure (Resolution of 27 November 2014 on supporting consumer rights in the digital single market) calls for member states to fast track negotiations on a telecommunications package to "put an end to roaming charges inside the EU, provide more legal certainty as regards net neutrality, and improve consumer protection." The legislation also calls for all Internet traffic to be treated equally, recommends swift adoption of a new data protection regulation, and urges action on copyright reform, among other things. The resolution was approved on a vote of 384 to 174 with 56 abstentions.

In response to the European Commission's long-running investigation of Google's business practices, the resolution says the “online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market” and welcomes the Commission’s promise to investigate the issues further. The resolution calls on the Commission to “prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines" and to “consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services” in the long run.

The resolution is non-binding, so it will not have any immediate effect on Google. However, it could increase pressure on Margrethe Vestager, who recently became European Commissioner in charge of competition issues, to take more aggressive action than what had been contemplated by her predecessor, Joaquin Almunia. The legislation also has raised concerns among U.S. policy-makers as lawmakers and administration officials argued that competition policy should be based on fact-finding and objective investigations and should not be "politicized."

News: Antitrust