Google warned of harder line from EU 

The EU’s incoming digital policy chief has put Google on notice that it faces a potentially more hostile Brussels regime, suggesting the US group could be forced to be neutral in presenting search results.

The US internet group has been under political siege in Europe since last year’s Edward Snowden spying scandal, facing fierce criticism from French and German ministers over its search practices and use of vast amounts of personal data.

Brussels this week in effect abandoned a carefully crafted draft settlement with Google over allegations that it manipulated search results to benefit its own in-house services.

Speaking to a New York audience yesterday, Joaquín Almunia, the EU’s outgoing competition chief, made clear it would be impossible to salvage the settlement before he leaves office in the next two months. “For sure this will not be concluded before the end of October,” he said.

This leaves the case in the hands of incoming European Commission president Jean- Claude Juncker and his new competition enforcer, Margrethe Vestager, the former Danish finance minister.

The comments echo the demands of Google’s rivals, who want the EU to use its competition powers to order Google to cease favouring its own specialised services in areas such as shopping or flight search.

Mr Oettinger also said European telecoms groups such as Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom were lagging behind global rivals and said the EU should be more open to the industry’s priorities. Big European telecoms groups have been pressing Brussels to limit the power of Google and regulate messaging services such as WhatsApp in which messaging is provided by a third party and not the provider.

 

Source: it

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