The European parliament is considering a resolution to break up Google, in order to resolve the competition concerns about Google's dominance in the search market. A draft motion seen by the Financial Times says that "unbundling [of] search engines from other commercial services" should be considered as a potential solution to Google's dominance. It has the backing of the parliament’s two main political blocs, the European People's Party and the Socialists, the paper said.
The European parliament has no formal power to split up companies, but has increasing influence on the European Commission, which initiates all EU legislation. The commission has been investigating concerns over Google's dominance of online search for five years. Margrethe Vestager, the incoming European competition commissioner, has indicated that she will listen to Google and various complainants before deciding on how to move forward with the antitrust inquiry into the company.
"Unbundling cannot be excluded," said Andreas Schwab, a German MEP who is one of the motion’s backers. Ramon Tremosa, a Spanish MEP who is sponsoring the motion, said it was necessary to consider unbundling as a long-term solution, because the commission could not "ask the secret of [Google’s] algorithm".
Google declined to comment. However, executives at the company are understood to be furious at the political nature of the motion and only became aware of the document in the past couple of days, after an MEP contacted Google for advice on its meaning. The draft resolution’s final text will be agreed in the last week of November, ahead of a vote expected on 27 November.
