Articles about Google vs the EU

The European Commission has started an investigation into "practices relating to Google's collection and use of data".

EU antirust regulators have already hit Google with record-breaking fines, but concern remains about how the company collects data about its users as well as how this data is then used. The regulator has contacted several companies to ask about agreements they have with Google to hand over user data and what -- if any -- money was involved.

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Google has been fined a record €2.42 billion ($2.7bn/£2.1bn) by the European Commission after a seven year investigation sparked by Microsoft and other firms, found that the company had unfairly promoted Google Shopping above other similar shopping comparison services on its search site.

The ruling also states that Google has 90 days to cease its anti-competitive practices or it could occur further penalties, and they could really rack up.

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Facebook, Apple and Google face a drop in ad revenue if EU proposals to apply the same rules to online messaging services that currently apply to telecoms companies go through. In a nutshell, the proposals suggest that the likes of WhatsApp, Gmail and iMessage should ask for explicit user permission to allow tracking with a view to delivering targeted ads.

Google and Microsoft have already faced criticism for scanning emails and using the contents to tailor advertising to the recipient. The EU wants online message services to be subject to the ePrivacy Directive to help improve confidentiality and security.

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European regulators could hit Google with large fines if the company does not stop offering financial incentives to smartphone manufacturers to pre-install its own apps on handsets. Documents obtained by Reuters show that a potential fine could be linked to the revenue Google makes from AdWords.

With advertising being Google's primary source of income, this has the potential to be a fine of unparalleled magnitude. The European Commission knows that it needs to hit Google where it hurts if anticompetitive practices are to be effectively discouraged. The Commission says it "intends to set the fine at a level which will be sufficient to ensure deterrence".

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Google may soon face a record €3 billion fine from the European antitrust authorities over how it abused its control of the online search market in the EU.

This will be the highest fine the European Commission has ever issued as an antitrust punishment. In addition to the fine, Google will be banned from manipulating its search results to favor itself over its rivals.

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The EU may be bringing an antitrust case against Google in relation to its Android operating system, but the ITIF (Information Technology & Innovation Foundation) thinks that this is 'misguided'. Rather than Google harming customer choice, the institute says that it is the case against Google that should be in the spotlight.

Google has made much of the fact that Android is open source, and the ITIF says that "holding 'open' operating systems to higher standard only hurts consumer choice". Vice President Daniel Castro says that the Android ecosystem reduces costs for consumers, increases choice, and complains that the European Commission has failed to give details of precisely how consumers are being harmed by Google.

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Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s antitrust commissioner, is continuing to put pressure on Google in regard to its Android operating system.

Vestager gave a speech at a conference in the Netherlands today in which she stressed how her department has now begun a close examination of the contracts Google has with mobile device manufacturers and mobile carriers. The European Commission is objecting to the requirements the company puts on its mobile partners to pre-load Google apps on devices.

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Google might have changed its name to Alphabet, but the stand-off it has with the European Union’s Antitrust Commission won’t go away.

In an extensive interview for The Wall Street Journal, European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager explains she still has the company in her sights.

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Antitrust claims against Google are nothing new, and the company stands accused of abusing its position and favouring its own products in search results in Europe. Today, Google's General Counsel Kent Walker responded to the European Commission's claims, saying they are "unfounded".

Google has filed an official response to the Commission, but a public blog post gives an accessible insight into the company's mindset. The EU is unhappy with the way Google displayed shopping links in search results, saying its own services are given undue prominence. Google says that far from being anti-competitive, the way it displays search results is beneficial to its users.

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Google abused its position in Europe to further its own online products, says the European Commission. Following a five-year investigation, Google stands accused of abusing dominance in Europe, violating antitrust laws. EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager says that Google gave its own shopping comparison service greater priority over rivals in search results.

The company's mobile operating system is also in the firing line. Android, it is said, has been used by Google to promote its own products and services over those of rivals.The Commission is also launching a formal investigation into Android to determine whether Google acted anti-competitively with its mobile operating system. Attention is focused on Google's bundling of its own apps after forming agreements with hardware manufacturers. Unsurprisingly, Google disagrees.

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Today, Rachel Whetstone, Google's senior vice president of communications and policy, asks what has been on my mind since a stunning scoop set the Wall Street Journal against the Federal Trade Commission and the search and information giant. As I explained in an analysis of the news reporting, the story is flush with insinuation and veiled accusation, bereft of context.

Among my more serious concerns: Journal-parent News Corp's ongoing tug-a-war with Google's business model and its impact on paid content. Both entities likely would benefit by any means that trustbusters could crimp Google. The scoop's timing and tone look like they intend to influence European Union public policy. Ms. Whetstone's response is brilliant, because it gets to the point: Conflict of interest taints the Journal's credibility and impartiality. She rightly observes: "We understand you have a new found love of the regulatory process, especially in Europe".

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News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media behemoth, is the latest source of criticism of Google. Robert Thomson, the chief executive of the company -- responsible for the Times and the Sun in the UK as well the book publisher HarperCollins -- has written to the European Commission to complain that the search giant is "a platform for piracy". Thomson pulls no punches as he lays into Google, saying that the company was in the hands of a "cynical management" and was "willing to exploit its dominant market position to stifle competition".

The letter, addressed to Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, is bitter in tone as Thomson complains of Google's "egregious" practices. It is Google's dominance of the search market that is seen as particularly problematic. News Corps feels that Google's power "increases with each passing day" -- a claim that many have leveled at Murdoch's corporation in the past -- and fears that this "will lead to a less informed, more vexatious level of dialog in our society". But this is far from being the only accusation that Thomson fires at Google.

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Today, the European Union's Competition Commission set the stage for an antitrust showdown with Google by offering settlement ahead of four pending violations. Proposal would come from the search giant, which initial response suggests resolution won't be easy.

The case revolves around a nearly two-year old effort to determine if Google abuses its dominant position in search. Some of these concerns involve the Mountain View, Calif. company's near-stranglehold of the web advertising market, of which the European Commission received several complaints.

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