EU piles pressure on regulators to break up Google

EU lawmakers have overwhelmingly backed a motion urging antitrust regulators to get tough on Google and other search engines and consider breaking them up.

The resolution in the European Parliament, the strongest public signal of Europe’s concern with the growing power of US tech giants, was passed with 384 votes for versus 174 against.

“Clear adoption by EP of digital single market motion, including unbundling for search engine if needed,” Spanish liberal lawmaker and co-sponsor of the bill, Ramon Tremosa said on Twitter.

The resolution did not mention specific search engines, though Google is by far the dominant provider of such services in Europe with an estimated 90% market share.

The lawmakers called on the Commission, in charge of enforcing fair competition in the EU, to consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services.

While the legislature has no power in the matter, the call to the Commission is intended to increase pressure on new antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager to act.

Google is the target of a four-year investigation by the Commission, triggered by complaints from Microsoft, Expedia, European publishers, and others that it promotes its services at their expense.

However, technology lobbying group Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Samsung, and eBay, said unbundling was an “extreme and unworkable” solution that made no sense in rapidly changing online markets.

“While clearly targeting Google, the parliament is in fact suggesting all search companies, or online companies with a search facility, may need to be separated,” said CCIA. “This is of great concern as we try to create a digital single market.”

Google faces an assault on its business from across the bloc. It was criticized by privacy regulators this week, targeted by German politicians who urged the EU to push on with the antitrust probe and faces a possible levy on internet copyright, adding to a Spanish law that allows publishers to charge for web content.

“It is very important that the application of competition law in individual cases remains independent from politics and that antitrust procedures are not put into question,” said Ricardo Cardoso, competition spokesman for the commission in Brussels, after the vote.

Ms Vestager, who took office on November 1, thinks investigations should be “limited to what can be clearly identified as competition issues and that they are conducted in an impartial way”, Cardoso said.

The pro-business liberal group, which said it voted against splitting the company, said “parliament should not be engaging in anti-Google resolutions inspired by a heavy lobby of Google competitors”, according to a statement.

Al Verney, a spokesman for Google in Brussels, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel and three ministerial colleagues wrote to the EU to say they supported the probe into Google.

They asked the commission to ensure dominant search engines don’t favour their own services, use others’ unauthorized content, effectively force websites to use their platform and impede the transfer of advertising content to other platforms.