Microsoft asks Commission to investigate Google ‘abuse’
Google accused of abusing online search market.
Microsoft wants the European Commission to act against what it sees as years of Google’s abuse of its dominant position in the online search market.
The US software manufacturer, which filed a complaint against Google with the Commission on 31 March, has asked regulators to address the perceived long-term imbalance in the sector, rather than merely to deal with the specific alleged obstacles, a Microsoft source said.
It is Microsoft’s first-ever official complaint to the Commission, after previously being on the receiving end of antitrust complaints.
Microsoft accuses Google of preventing other search engines from operating effectively. Its initiative follows the Commission’s decision in November to begin an in-depth investigation into complaints filed by three small internet search firms, one of which is now owned by Microsoft, which alleges anti-competitive behaviour by Google.
Unbalanced market share
Microsoft claims that it has been deprived of access to users by Google’s practices. It cites its own figures indicating that Google has 95% of the share of the online search market in the EU (compared to about 75% in the US). A Microsoft source said that it had told the Commission that Google would continue benefiting from that imbalance even if existing obstacles, which Microsoft claims Google puts in the way, are removed.
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If the Commission finds that Google has abused its dominant position in the search market, it could either come to a settlement with Google on measures to rectify the situation, or impose conditions.
Microsoft defended itself for 15 years against claims of anti-competitive practices related to its Internet Explorer web-browser, which finished in 2008 when Microsoft was fined €899 million for failure to comply with the Commission’s decision.
Different complaints
Christian Duvernoy of WilmerHale, a Brussels-based law firm, said that there were differences between the previous complaints against Microsoft and the latest complaints against Google. He did not expect the case to take so long to reach a conclusion.
Users’ ability to choose their search engine – even though the vast majority turned to Google – would not be considered in the same way as Microsoft’s dominance of operating systems, said Duvernoy. He previously represented Red Hat, an open-source software company, in support of the Commission’s proceedings against Microsoft.
A spokesman for Google said the company was “not surprised” by Microsoft’s complaint. Al Verney, Google’s EU spokesman, said: “For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we’re happy to explain to anyone how our business works.”
Microsoft has pointed to six examples of Google’s actions that it says amount to an abuse of market position. They are: restricting other search engines from finding YouTube, which Google owns; blocking Microsoft smartphones from providing access to YouTube; controlling access to out-of-copyright books; restricting advertisers from access to data about themselves; contractually blocking leading European websites from using search boxes that are not Google; and discriminating against would-be competitors by making it more costly for them to attain prominent placement for their advertisements.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for Joaquín Almunia, the European commissioner for competition, said: “The Commission takes note of the complaint and, as is the procedure, will inform Google and will ask for its views on it.”
Yesterday (6 April) it was revealed that the US Federal Trade Commission is also considering a competition investigation into Google’s dominance of internet search.