Google this week fought back against European Commission allegations that it abused its dominant position in the online search market, questioning the validity of the accusations and insisting consumers and businesses benefit from its services.
The EU in April sent a Statement of Objections (SO) to Google asserting that it systematically favours results from its own shopping comparison service, Google Shopping, to the detriment of rival shopping aggregators. This practice harms consumers and businesses and is therefore in breach of the Commission’s antitrust rules.
Google rejected the accusations at the time, and on T hursday this week it formally filed its counter argument.
"We believe that the SO’s preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics," said Kent Walker, SVP and general counsel at Google, in a blog post.
He insisted that the format of Google Shopping, which advertises a product on sale from multiple merchants, is not anti-competitive but reflects the company’s commitment to quality.
"Our search engine is designed to provide the most relevant results and most useful ads for any query. Users and advertisers benefit when we do this well. So does Google. It’s in our interest to provide high-quality results and ads that connect people to what they’re looking for," he said.
The EU launched an investigation into Google’s search practices in 2010 after several companies accused it of unfairly favouring its own services in its search results over those of its rivals. In March 2013, it concluded that some of Google’s business practices violated European antitrust rules.
Google made a number of concessions in the intervening years in a bid to reach a settlement, but none were deemed sufficient to avoid an SO from the EU.
The remedy proposed by the SO would see shopping search results gathered by rival aggregators appear alongside Google Shopping results.
"This would harm the quality and relevance our results," said Walker, who pointed out that Google is not the only means of reaching consumers over the Internet.
"We look forward to discussing our response and supporting evidence with the Commission, in the interest of promoting user choice and open competition," he concluded.
