WAN-IFRA

Shaping the Future of the Newspaper

Date

Fri - 25.05.2012


Google receives anti-trust probe from the EU

Google receives anti-trust probe from the EU

The European Commission announced that on Tuesday it began investigating anti-trust allegations related to Google's activity, after which the tech giant revealed that it should have been "more transparent" regarding its mechanism of ranking competitor's search engines, The Telegraph informed yesterday.

Image via Geeky Gadgets

Google might just have abused its powerful position by diminishing the ranking of search results from other engines, The Inquirer speculated. There was also the possibility that Google might have asked certain advertisers to sign an exclusivity contract that obliged them not to place any ads from competing outlets. Furthermore, Google might have imposed guidelines on the presence of ad campaigns on competing online advertising platforms, said a press release from the Commission.

Google divulged that it would be cooperating with the Commission in order to "address any concerns". According to The Telegraph, the corporation's "conciliatory approach" may aid in preventing persistent legal problems and expensive fines.

"It argues that it inevitably has to make judgments in deciding how best to present unpaid search results, but denies that it has deliberately shown favouritism to its own services," The Economist wrote about Google. 'It also rejects the claim that it manipulates the results of paid search ads in ways that disadvantage firms that compete with it. And it says that it does not impose exclusivity agreements on advertisers."

The Inquirer concluded that while there was no official deadline, that there was a chance the probe could last for nearly six months. Google was also recently placed under investigation for related concerns in the United States.

See also:

Google gets anti-trust review

Author

Alisa Zykova

Date

2010-12-02 18:40

Shaping the Future of the Newspaper


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