The EC first tested proposals from Google with the market in April, but received largely negative responses. Google has since improved its offer of binding commitments, which Almunia said the EC had been negotiating with the company up until the day prior to the hearing. He said the "new proposal more appropriately addresses the need for any commitments to be able to cover future developments", so the commitments would cover search on any kind of device, in text or voice commands.
Almunia said Google also improved its offer on vertical search, making links to specialised search services much more visible in its own search results. In addition to more space for rivals, competitors will have the possibility to display their logo next to the link, and dynamic text associated with each rival link will better inform the user of its content. Google also revised the auction mechanism to be used to decide on which rival links are displayed, providing an option to bid for each specific query. This is important to ensure that smaller specialized search operators can be displayed, Almunia said.
The EC was also concerned about Google's use of third-party content in its own specialised search services. Google has now improved the opt-out options for third-party websites and pledged to not retaliate against websites that make use of the opt-out. Google will also no longer include in its agreements with publishers any provisions or impose obligations that would require publishers to source online search ads exclusively from Google for queries from EU users. The new proposal improves the safeguards against possible circumvention of this, Almunia said. In addition, Google tightened its pledge to not impede advertisers from porting and managing search advertising campaigns across Google's services and competing services.
Finally, an independent monitoring trustee would be put in place to provide assistance to the EC in ensuring that Google meets all the commitments. Almunia said the significant improvements in Google's offer gives him confidence that the case can be resolved through a settlement, rather than pursuing anti-trust sanctions against the company. The EC will negotiate the final details in the coming weeks, and the proposal will then be put to market consultation again. A final decision could follow next spring, the commissioner said.
