European Commission announces investigation into Google’s alleged power abuse

Google’s search practices will be thoroughly investigated by the antitrust division of the European Commission. The announced probe follows complaints from competing search engines. They suspect that Google ranks their own results before the results of their competitors. That, they state, is an abuse of Google’s market power.

More specifically, the investigation targets the algorithmic search results, the results against the white background (opposed to the sponsored results against the orangy-pink background). Certain price comparison engines, so-called vertically integrated search engines, feel that in Google’s search engine, Google’s own price comparison service is structurally placed above the competition, which contradicts Google’s obligation to present the results in an unbiased fashion.

The EC has indicated that it has no proof about any infringement, but that it takes the complaints seriously: “This initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of any infringements. It only signifies that the Commission will conduct an in-depth investigation of the case as a matter of priority.”

Google insists that the allegations are false and that it treats all results equally, no matter the origins. “But”, they say, “There’s always going to be room for improvement, and so

we’ll be working with the Commission to address any concerns.”

Google’s search engine is based on a system that awards a number on a site, the Quality Score. The higher the score, the higher the place on the results list. The EC has received allegations that Google lowers the QS for services that compete with their own.

While Google may be sincere in it’s motto not to be evil, by their sheer size, and let’s not forget the incredible usefulness of their services, they have certainly developed a lot of power. And power, as philosophers say, tends towards generating more power without much regard for others, a thorough visitation by the EC antitrust bodies seems appropriate and even long overdue.

A timeline for the investigation has not been provided.

Google recently faced scrutiny from the travel industry for acquiring technology to compare airline prices.