Tech companies urge EU Commissioner to force Google to compete fairly
Margrethe Vestager is being urged to enforce Google’s compliance with the Google Search (Shopping) decision and to take all necessary measures to stop the favouring and provision of other Google services within its general search results pages.
Irish website Jobs.ie is one of the signatories of an open letter from 130 tech companies and 28 industry associations calling on the EU Commission to enforce its 2017 abuse of dominance decision by putting an end to Google’s continuing practice of favouring its own specialised search services within general search results pages.
The tech companies, which also include representatives from Tripadvisor.com, Booking.com, Trivago.com and Hotels.com, write that Google has not achieved its dominant position “by competing on the merits.”
"Rather, there is now global consensus that Google gained unjustified advantages through preferentially treating its own services within its general search results.”
The signatories in the letter to Executive Vice President & Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager state that while they compete amongst themselves for the best consumer experience, Google “does not compete fairly.”
“We all face strong competition from Google in our respective search services markets. Google has entered each of these markets by leveraging its unassailable dominance in general Internet search – to gain a competitive head start and quickly gain market shares.”
“Even starting out as a late entrant in each of these markets, Google has achieved a dominating scale and scope in no time. Like no service before, Google has amassed data and content relevant for competition on such markets at the expense of others – us.”
Three years ago, Google was fined €2.4bn by Europe's competition watchdog over its preferential treatment of its own shopping comparison service.
The letter states that while the Commission’s Google Search (Shopping) decision in 2017 “was supposed to” set a precedent that Google is not permitted to promote its own services within the search results pages of its dominant general search service, the decision “did not lead to Google changing anything meaningful.”
The companies are now urging Margrethe Vestager to enforce Google’s compliance with the Google Search (Shopping) decision and to take all necessary measures to stop the favouring and provision of other Google services within its general search results pages.
“Action is required now. If Google were allowed to continue the anti-competitive favouring of its own specialised search services until any meaningful regulation takes effect, our services will continue to lack traffic, data and the opportunity to innovate on the merits."
"Until then, our businesses continue to be trapped in a vicious cycle – providing benefits to Google’s competing services while rendering our own services obsolete in the long run.”
Google has been fined three times by Ms Vestager and the European Commission for breaching antitrust rules.
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