The EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has given Google an opportunity to offer remedies to address the concerns identified by its anti-trust investigation. In a statement, he said that he wanted a quick resolution of these competition issues for the benefit of users. The investigation has identified four concerns where Google business practices may be considered as an abuse of market dominance. He has written to Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlining these points and asking the company to provide proposals of remedies to address each of these points within weeks. If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing these concerns, the EC will initiate discussions in order to finalise a remedies package.
First, in its general search results on the web, Google displays links to its own vertical search services differently than it does for links to rivals. The EC is concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services. The second concern relates to the way Google copies content from competing vertical search services and uses it in its own offerings. Google may be copying original material from the websites of its competitors without their prior consent, raising concerns that this could reduce rivals' incentives to invest in the creation of original content. The third concern relates to agreements between Google and partners on the websites of which Google delivers search advertisements. The agreements result in de facto exclusivity requiring them to obtain all or most of their requirements of search advertisements from Google, shutting out rival providers of search advertising intermediation services. The fourth concern relates to restrictions that Google puts to the portability of online search advertising campaigns from its platform AdWords to the platforms of rivals.
