Google Reaches Tentative Deal in E.U. Antitrust Case
By MARK SCOTT
The agreement should mean that the tech giant will avoid a fine as well
as a finding of wrongdoing that could limit its activities in Europe.
LONDON
— Google reached a tentative settlement with European antitrust
authorities on Wednesday, ending a lengthy competition investigation
into the American tech company’s practices that could have led to
billions of dollars in penalties.
The
agreement should mean that the tech giant will avoid a fine as well as a
finding of wrongdoing that could limit its future activities on the
Continent.
The
discussions have centered on whether the tech giant abused its
dominance in Internet search and advertising to favor its own products
and services in search results. Some competitors said Wednesday that the
settlement doesn’t go far enough, adding that they may take their case
to the European Court of Justice.
The
deal marks the culmination of almost four years of negotiations between
Google and the European Union, whose officials rejected two earlier
settlement offers. Google is used for roughly 90 percent of searches in
many European markets, slightly higher than its 70 percent market share
in the United States.
Joaquín
Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner, had made the
antitrust settlement with Google a top priority before he leaves his
post later this year, though some analysts question whether the
agreement will drastically alter Google’s dominance within Europe’s
Internet landscape.
As
part of the deal, Google will have to give greater prominence to rivals
in European search results for the next five years, which could lead to
major changes in how its search business operates in Europe compared to
other parts of the world.
The
settlement includes Google agreeing to display links to competitors’
services as part of users’ search results, while also making it easier
for advertisers to move their business to rivals like Yahoo and
Microsoft.
The
European agreement goes further than a similar settlement that Google
reached in the United States with the Federal Trade Commission last
year, which forced only minor concessions from the company. Google could
also have faced penalties of up to $5 billion from the European
Commission.
“My
mission is to protect competition to the benefit of consumers, not
competitors,” Mr. Almunia said in a statement on Wednesday. “I believe
that the new proposal obtained from Google after long and difficult
talks can now address the Commission’s concerns.”
Google’s
rivals, including Microsoft, have raised concerns that the deal will
still allow the tech firm to maintain its dominance over European search
results and advertising revenue. They also have demanded the
opportunity to comment on and offer amendments to the proposals, which
will likely have a significant impact on their own operations.
Some local competitors are now considering whether to turn to the European courts to appeal against the antitrust agreement.
“Any
proposal will not adequately restore competition, as long as Google
refuses to treat all web services on an equal basis,” Michael Weber,
director of the mapping service Hot-Map, said before the Google
settlement was announced on Wednesday.
Google
only agreed to the offer under considerable pressure from European
policy makers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the
matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak publicly.
The
tech giant was keen to avoid the lengthy legal troubles that plagued
Microsoft after European antitrust officials opened an competition
investigation into its practices in the early 1990s.
Google
has had several legal wrangles with European politicians and their
domestic counterparts over its growing presence on the Continent. That
includes privacy complaints about Google’s mapping services and tax
disputes related to the company’s European operations.
Wednesday’s
settlement marks Google’s third effort to appease European antitrust
officials. Policy makers rejected the company’s first concessions in
early 2013, saying that changes to its search results did not go far
enough to deal with their competition concerns.
Google
resubmitted its settlement offer in September, though Mr. Almunia of
the European Commission said that proposal, which would have given
Google’s rivals a more prominent position in search results, still was
not acceptable.
“We will be making significant changes to the way Google operates in Europe,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Since
the investigation began in late 2010, Google’s business model has
diversified significantly beyond search. The settlement does not require
the company to change the algorithm that produces its search results.
And analysts pointed out that the search settlement does not include its
expanded web services like cloud data, mapping and email, and
e-commerce, which have given the company an increasingly dominant
position in how Europeans use the Internet.
copy http://www.nytimes.com/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário