EU parliament backs resolution on Google break-up

News General Europe 27 NOV 2014
EU parliament backs resolution on Google break-up
The European Parliament has called for the EU to consider forcing Google to separate its search engine from its other business activities. In a resolution passed by 384 votes for versus 174 against, the MEPs said "unbundling" the search activities from Google's other commercial activities should be considered in the long term, if the European Commission is unable to resolve satisfactorily its current competition investigation into Google's search practices. 

The EC has been under pressure from the media and publishing sectors to ensure that Google does not give priority to its own content services in its search engine results and that other online information providers have equal access to marketing over Google. The company has offered a number of changes to its practices to avoid fines for abuse of its dominant position, but the EC has been unable to reach a market consensus on whether this is enough. 

The parliamentary resolution welcomed the new Commission’s pledge to investigate further the search engine practices and called on the Commission "to prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines", stressing the importance of non-discriminatory online search. "Indexation, evaluation, presentation and ranking by search engines must be unbiased and transparent", according to the resolution passed. 

The resolution underlined that "the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market". If the EC cannot ensure competition rules are respected, it should "consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services" in the long run. 

The resolution also included a plea to EU governments to move forward on the telecoms single market legislation, which telecom ministers are discussing the same day as the parliamentary vote. The Parliament urged member states to start negotiations on the telecoms package, so as to "put an end to roaming charges inside the EU, provide more legal certainty as regards net neutrality and improve consumer protection". Regarding net neutrality, the MEPs stressed that "all internet traffic should be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference".

The non-binding resolution also included a call for the European Commission to work on cloud computing standards. The EU should take the lead in promoting international standards and specifications for cloud computing, in order to ensure privacy, reliability, accessibility, interoperability and energy efficiency, the resolution said.

Categories:

General

Companies:

European Commission,  Google

Regions:

Europe

Tags:

Regulations, Portals / social media, Wholesale, Information services, Advertising services, Legislation - Lawsuits

Related Articles

EUROPE 4 DEC 2015

EU, tech companies meet over anti-terrorism cooperation

Government and law-enforcement officials from the European Union have held meetings with US tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter to explore ways of enhancing cooperation in the fight against terrorism, reports the Wall Street Journal. A large focus of the meetings has been to put in place swifter measures to remove propaganda and recruitment messages by Islamic State and other terror groups from social-media websites. The EU officials also raised the topic of whether tech fi

EUROPE 15 APR 2015

EC confirms Google search charges, Android investigation

The European Commission confirmed formal charges against Google for competition violations, through favouring its own comparison shopping services over rival services in Google search results. This is one of the four areas previously outlined in the EU's investigation into possible abuse of Google's dominant position in the search market. Google will be able to respond to the charges and propose remedies, but if the EC is not satisfied with its response, it may impose a fine equal to up to 10 percent of Goo

EUROPE 15 APR 2015

Google to face EC charges on abuse of search market position

The European Commission is going ahead with charging Google with abuse of its dominant position in the search market, as well as launching a formal investigation into Google's Android operating system. According to the Financial Times, the formal charges over the search market will be presented 15 April, and the Android investigation will be announced at the same time. The initial charge will focus on product searches where Google is accused of harming other shopping sites, but could be extended to other ar

BELGIUM 2 APR 2015

Belgian Privacy Commission reaches agreement with Google

Google reached an agreement with the Belgian Privacy Commission, reports De Morgen. The commission's chairman Willem Debeuckelaere said that Google will now request express permission before processing a user's data. Google declined to comment on whether there was such an agreement. Google has been under scrutiny for some time by several European regulators concerned about how it shares personal data across its services. Any agreement on data processing would need to cover all of the EU and not just Belgium

EUROPE 2 APR 2015

EC prepares new antitrust case against Google - report

EU competition officials are showing signs of preparing a new antitrust case against Google, the Financial Times reports. In recent weeks the regulator had contact with companies that have complained in the past about unfair competition from Google. The European Commission asked for permission to publish extracts from the confidential complaints lodged by rivals, according to two people who received the requests. Gary Reback, a Silicon Valley lawyer who has represented several Google rivals, said the reques

EUROPE 25 MAR 2015

EC outlines plans for Digital Single Market strategy

The European Commission has outlined plans for improving the digital single market in the EU. In a presentation in Brussels, the EC discussed its plans for legislation on the matter, to be introduced in May. The three main policy areas are ensuring better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services, providing a regulatory framework and market conditions for digital networks and services to flourish, and building on the long-term growth potential of a further digitisation of society and

UNITED STATES 20 MAR 2015

FTC found evidence of Google 'harm' to consumers - report

Officials at the US Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google used anti-competitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed internet users and rivals, a far harsher analysis of Google's business than was previously known. The staff report from the agency's bureau of competition, inadvertently disclosed in an open-records request, recommended the commission bring a lawsuit challenging three Google practices, the Wall Street Journal reports. They concluded that Google's "conduct

EUROPE 26 FEB 2015

Google unifies European operations

Google is reorganising its European operations, unifying its two separate arms there, which had been split into geographic groupings. Matt Brittin, who previously led Google's northern and western European arm, will take over the day-to-day running of the new business, with country leaders reporting directly to him. He will be based in London. Carlo D'Asaro Biondo, who has led the company's southern and eastern European operations, will now be responsible for relationships with Google's commercial partners

EUROPE 20 JAN 2015

EU commissioner calls for more concessions from Google

Google must make further concessions to resolve the EU's competition case in internet search, said Gunther Oettinger, the EU digital economy commissioner. Oettinger told the DLD conference in Munich that the European Commission hoped to reach a "balanced decision" on the Google case this year, the Financial Times reports. An earlier compromise broke down in 2014 after protests from complainants led by European publishers. "Google has to bring more offers to us so we can make a really convincing compromise,"

AUSTRIA 24 DEC 2014

Google removes only half of requested URLs in DACH region

Google has unveiled the number of search engine take-down requests for Austria, Germany and Switzerland in its transparency report. In Germany a t total of: 118,941 URLs were requested to be taken down of which 49.7 percent were actually taken down. In Austria, 14,080 URLs were requested to be removed from search results of which Google actually removed 51.3 percent. In Switzerland, 16,190 URLs were requested to be removed of which 44.9 percent were actually removed.

NETHERLANDS 16 DEC 2014

Dutch regulator orders changes in Google privacy terms

The Dutch privacy regulator CBP has threatened Google with a fine of up to EUR 15 million. The sanction follows an investigation into Google's privacy terms for users, last changed in 2012. These were found to violate Dutch law on the protection of personal information. The regulator found that Google users' information is used by the company in order to serve up personalised ads. This occurs both for people logged into a Google account as well as those using the Google search engine or visiting sites where

EUROPE 9 DEC 2014

Only a fifth of EU businesses use cloud services - study

Only one out of every five companies in the EU are currently using cloud computing services, according to data released by Eurostat. Although 97 percent of companies with ten or more employees have internet access, only 19 percent of them use cloud-based services. The highest shares of companies using the cloud were seen in Finland (51 percent), Italy (40 percent), Sweden (39 percent) and Denmark (38 percent), with most of the businesses active in the information and communication sector (45 percent), follo

EUROPE 28 NOV 2014

GSMA, ETNO back looser definition of net neutrality in EU

The GSMA has called for U policymakers to take a fresh look at telecoms policy, as governments struggle to reach agreement on the existing single market proposal. The mobile industry association said the "rejection by the Council of Ministers of large sections of the Telecoms Single Market package" offers an opportunity to "take a fresh look". It called for a "bold new vision" addressing issues such as "the new internet bottlenecks and the years of accumulated legacy regulation that have held back investmen

EUROPE 27 NOV 2014

Google told to extend 'right to be forgotten' worldwide

EU data protection and privacy regulators have told Google to extend its implementation of the 'right to be forgotten' across its global search properties. An EU court ruling in May requires Google to remove links to sensitive information on its search engine based on a person's name, if that person so requests. However, Google has implemented the 'right to be forgotten' only on its European domains. The Article 29 Working Group, made up of national privacy regulators in the EU, has now issued new guideline

EUROPE 27 NOV 2014

German ministers call for EU action on Google search

Four German ministers have sent a joint letter to the European Commission, urging the EU's executive arm to consider legislation to regulate internet platforms so "positions of economic power remain open to competition". The 11-page paper, whose lead signatory is the German economics minister Sigmar Gabriel, argues it may be necessary to introduce "platform neutrality" to tackle abuses of dominance, either through tough antitrust enforcement or new legislation, the Financial Times reports. The German minist

Just In

16:42

SLT-Mobitel launches 5G network in Sri Lanka

16:19

Dialog Axiata launches 5G network, connects 1.5 million subscribers

15:56

UK govt to ban AI-enabled nudification apps to protect women, girls

15:42

3 UK launches last-minute Christmas sale

Commentary

13:56

Video market set for slower growth ahead

11:38

Netflix buys Warner Bros to deepen content catalogue

11:11

KPN's mixed performance in Q3 raises questions for strategy day

15:26

Stock markets breaking records but what happened to Odido's IPO plans?

Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins

Complete profile

Before downloading the whitepaper, we would like to ask you to complete your profile with company and position. After confirming you will receive the white paper.