UK Service Urges to Reject Google Antitrust Proposals

One of the companies that led antitrust charges against Google in the European Union – UK price comparison service – has urged the European Commission to reject Google’s proposals.

The price comparison website Foundem claimed in its statement that the search giant’s proposals were “ill-suited” and that the European Commission should reject them. Google is still accused of favoring its own services with higher rankings over its rivals. Foundem claimed that Google is keen to portray the EC’s acceptance of its proposals as a “fait accompli”. If these proposals are adopted, it would kill any hope of re-establishing the level playing field on which competition, innovation, and user choice depends.

Google promised to allow websites to remove their content from Google search, while making sure that it doesn’t affect overall web rankings. Moreover, the giant offered the specialized search services the option to mark categories of data in a way that is not indexed or used by Google. Finally, the service would enable news publishers to control the way their content appears in Google News.

The company said it would scrap any obligations forcing portals to use adverts exclusively from Google and prevent advertisers from managing search advertising across rival platforms. The European Commission pointed out that the market will make up its mind in May. In case Google’s proposals are accepted, the company will be duty bound to stick to them for another 5 years and publish results in each member state. However, if the proposals are rejected, Google can be forced to bide to a strict code of conduct. If the company gets caught violating those terms, it would face fines of up to 10% of its revenues all over the world.

In the meanwhile, the industry experts point out that the chief beneficiary of imposing strict rules on Google may not be Internet users or the market, as argued – but in fact Microsoft, which is currently making inroads into the search market as well. If the software giant weakens Google’s grip (even just in Europe), it would be a massive boon to Microsoft. As for the Foundem co-founder Shivaun Raff, the only “foolproof way to tackle abusive practices is to end them”. Google has nothing left but to wait the EC’s verdict.