Now that Microsoft's
browser selection story is all but settled, it looks like the
European Union is gearing up for a new antitrust probe, with its crosshairs aimed generally in
Google's direction. According to the search giant's Senior Competition Counsel Julia Holtz (via its European Public Policy Blog), complaints from three European internet companies -- legal search group
EJustice.fr, price comparison site
Foundem.co.uk, and German-based Microsoft subsidiary
Ciao.de -- have prompted the European Commission to launch a preliminary, fact-finding probe. The charges? Anticompetitive practices stemming from unfair downranking of its competitors in search results. Google denies any wrongdoing, while adding ,"we are also the first to admit that our search is not perfect, but it's a very hard computer science problem to crack." The Microsoft connection seems particularly notable to Google; Holtz reiterates that the company had a good relationship with
Ciao until the Redmond company picked it up in 2008 -- "we started receiving complaints about our standard terms and conditions." Like we said, at this point it's just a fact-finding probe that could end up going nowhere, but seriously,
Google's lawyers cannot seem to get a break these days.
posted February 23rd 2010 9:47PM
@Smurf EU consiliere Vito Corleone promises to make Google an offer they can't refuse.
Big surprise
@Sogeking It won't be, after M$ sues google at EU over chromeOS
I think the EU is just annoyed with Google automatically signing them up for Buzz in their GMail accounts.
@erik1080 thats not true it asks you if u want to join buzz they clicked yes there
@Sogeking Do not pass "GO...OGLE"?
Type 'search' into Google. Google itself is ranked third. Piss off EU.
Antitrust? interesting theory.... I'm waiting for the term "possible Google-killer" to become popular.
@Sogeking
kinda hard to press charges on open source products they are coming out with >.
@corylulu
got cut off....
as far as search engines go...
its their site... they can choose what content shows up and in what order based on whatever the fuck they want. I realize their are some laws they must abide by... but come one... who is gonna search search engines in a search engine.
@Sogeking
Someone should file an anti-trust lawsuit against the EU for being the only ones getting to sue big corporations for big bucks.
Not enough big bucks going around... and that's anti-competitive man.
Die EU! Die! Die! Die!
@E71
US and japan do the same.
For example intel got fines for unfair business practices from EU, Japan and USA.
@(Unverified) Couldn't believe it to be true. So I tried it. I entered Search Engine into google. The top 3 results in order are "Dogpile Web Search" (Never Heard of it before); Bing; and THIRD is Google.
Yeah that is PROOF that google is downranking it's competitors /sarcasm
@(Unverified) The real question is...Who would search for a search engine in a search engine?
My head hurts.
@Molsen06 never heard of dogpile? i guess i'm old (and quite frankly surprised it's still around)
@E71
Why was this down ranked? This is actually kinda funny, I mean he has a good point.
@(Unverified) You dumb enough to check the facts? First, check the results. Second, it would be abhorent that the Google name & its related site that probably gets billions of hits would be ranked by the "Worlds Best search Engine" at # three?
Some world you live in. Perhaps, we need to coin the term Googlefanboi just for you, although there are plenty who love and use Google thousands of times a day.
@SewerShark
Yo dawg. So we heard you like search engines. So we put a search engine in your search engine so you can search while you search!
Here we go again.
@Kris91
My client pleads guilty for reasons of temporary insanity
@Kris91
Behind every success is a crime
So pretty much if a company does well in Europe the EU goes after them, cool
@hexoDAT64
next up, Apple for not licensing out Mac OS X and iPhone OS
@JeremyBenthem
An hour ago, I would have said that you're crazy and it's not the same at all. But if the EU can go after Google for page rank of their competitors' search engine, then all bets are off.
@hexoDAT64
This is a little ridiculous. If you don't want to use google then use yahoo or bing or go to the library...noone is forcing you to use anything. The IE thing was because it was actually pre-installed on the computer....WHICH IT SHOULD BE since it is microsoft OS! If it were an anti-trust issue it would be that IE was pre-installed and other browsers were blocked from accessing the internet, but that is NOT the case! This anti-trust crap is really getting out of hand and needs to stop.
@hexoDAT64
Seems like it. =|
@gentlefury Which is pretty much what Apple is doing with Safari for iPhone.
@gentlefury
hmm then that means pretty soon they should be on Apple's case since they ban things that "duplicate functionality" on the iPhone..
I wonder if Apple allows for third party browsers on the iPhone like Opera Mini. Although really, safari is a great browser as it is.
@JeremyBenthem
They will probably go after iLife and iTunes for being bundled with OS X and iPods. That could be a good thing...I think.
@gentlefury
Agreed! The EU is telling me that if I create my own OS I can't make productivity software specifically designed for it?? Nevermind the fact that ME, MYSELF, and I CREATED said OS, and didn't FORCE anyone to use it etc. This is BS. The EU is a bureaucracy with "solutions" in search of "problems." Go away!
@hexoDAT64
yes, you are correct.
antitrust in Europe is made to protect customers and promote fair competition.
when a company has a monopoly, a quasi-monopoly, or a de-facto monopoly, it is not allowed to use it's predominance to "kill" it's competition.
a fair play as much as it can be.
so it was valid for Microsoft, as a browser was an application until MS decided to put as part of the OS, which was still all right, but then, when called for doing so, they made the new OS with IE part of the OS so intricately that you could not do without (and you still could not uninstall, as the explorer used it. with the intention of getting mozilla to nothing
same when they used their advantage to force manufacturers to bundle their OS, with the proven threat of withdrowing selling the product to them.
same for intel , of for a PC manufacturer.
key word here is the monopoly (or close monopoly), so yes: when a company is successful (getting to a monopolistic place) it is checked.
oh and forced bundling is Forbidden by law in most european countries. if you are the picky and annoying type, you could open a box of 4 batteries in a shop and ask them to price one single battery. 4 is a bundle (tough game though, annoyance for little, but you;d win in courts)
For the other comments i saw: iphone bundled to itunes is border legal and had issues, and if google is using it's predominance to slowly destroy it's competition, instead of advances on a level play, then it is investigated.
oh and these do help the customer. after investigation was concluded, now you don't have to pay for an MS windows when you purchase a PC without OS, exclusivity for the iphone is deemed less and less legal, bundling itunes to the iphone has already been brought to courts, and having your search in internet slowly narrowed to google only in the future with Google's vision of what you should see is a dangerous step.
(companies change, see Apple from think different to think as I want you to.)
allegation of seach things, when brought to court must be investigated.
oh and most of the comments I saw here, are complaining about europe checking this out, while usually all the examples above brought to european customers what Engadget's commenters usually complain about not having in USA.
@D1Only1
Finally some sanity.
Nothing wrong with a few laws to keep companies in check. Businesses have no requirement whatsoever to be moral, and in fact choosing morals over long term profits is against shareholders interests and isn't allowed. The only thing that stops companies doing whatever they like (regardless of its affect on the public) is that there are rules.
I own a house. It is mine! I should be able to paint it pink and add two stories to it if I like. However I can't do that if it is to the detriment of the rest of the street. Fair enough.
I can't believe the number of people here feeling pity for, and rushing to the defence of, Microsoft and Google in these cases. These ruling are directly intended to improve competition which is ultimately beneficial to all of us.
For example, if Microsoft used its influence to force Adobe to only provide Photoshop on Windows, took away Office from OSX and created a new proprietary office format simply to strongarm Apple users into furthering the windows desktop monopoly, the EU (and most other countries/unions) would rush to outlaw the action. It is their responsibility to do so. It is a company's responsibility to push the barriers as far as they will go, but to follow the rules set out.
@coolbho3000 and @Junzhi -
A little research, it goes a long way, you know? Apple has allowed web browsers in the App Store since January 2009, eleven months ago. There are now plenty of alternative of web browsers available in the App Store. Why didn't you bother to find out the truth before writing an outright lie?
hopefully droid caught a got of a jail free card outta the community chest
@synergy get out of jail****
@synergy
its eye will melt the jail bars
Roh-roh-ah-ah-ah! RoMah-mah-mah-ah-ah! Gah-Gah-ooh-la-la! Want your Bad Romance! - Microsoft
@StewieGriffin
exactly, i don't get why nobody sees the ties to microsoft.
ciao is owend by MS and foundem has at least a connection to MS
I think Microsoft simply wants to get back at google.
@StewieGriffin Google has been part of every lawsuit against MS, what did you expect?
EU- don't hate the player, hate the game
@haan
suggesting that the EU are a bunch of commies? XD.
If someone has money or power then there is always someone else that wants to take it away...
Wow, it's not Google's fault that www.google.com is drilled into my brain. I use Google for all my search needs, the fact that it's just so simple to me always dragged me in...
@Apples2Oranges
What... uh... Browser are you using that doesn't have a search bar already built in?
Before I started using Chrome I went to http://www.google.com instead of the Google searchbox on Firefox, no idea why.
I am all up for our (US) government posing arbitrary fines on European companies operating in the United States.
@Jason B Ericsson comes to mind. They're the 800 lb gorilla in Wireless networks. I bet we can trump up some charges if the EU can.
@MrGlitch
I don't know about you but my browser uses Google in the little search thingy (granted i told it to) but ff also uses Google's I'm feeling lucky search when you type non-urls into the URL bar, at least that's what I read somewhere
@pballinuyasha
never have I had a mispost, until now :(
@Jason B I always find it hilarious (and sad), how it's all the americans on engadget who fail to understand that a working capitalistic market needs government oversight to not be dominated by the corporations instead of the consumers.
(See for example the american mobile phone industry)