The European Commission has sent a Statement of Objections to Google alleging the company has abused its dominant position in the markets for general Internet search services in the European Economic Area (EEA) by systematically favoring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages. The Commission's preliminary view is that such conduct infringes EU antitrust rules because it stifles competition and harms consumers.
Almost 20 complainants against Google want the search engine to abide by strict rules that ensure its formula treats its own services no differently from rivals.
CEPIC, on behalf of the photographic community, is one of the complainants.
The CEPIC complaint focuses on the antitrust behavior that Google Image Search gives to images. By copying the images of stock agencies and showing them as if they were theirs, Google promotes piracy and devalues the work and effort of hundreds of thousands of individual authors and right holders.
Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation, but it is the opening salvo in one of the defining antitrust cases of the Internet era.
EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy, Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager said: "
The Commission's objective is to apply EU antitrust rules to ensure that companies operating in Europe, wherever they may be based, do not artificially deny European consumers as wide a choice as possible or stifle innovation". (See the
full release)
Google will be given 10 weeks to respond to allegations and will have the opportunity to call a hearing to make its defense. Ultimately, the commission has the power to levy fines of up to 10 percent of Google’s global turnover and can impose far-reaching curbs on its business practices.
Vestager took over the role of the EU’s competition commissioner in Novermber. Her predecessor as antitrust chief, Joaquin Alumnia, had tried and failed repeatedly to reach a settlement with Google through more private negotiations. Many observers believed he was hesitant to file a formal “statement of objections. Clearly Vestager is willing to be more confrontational.
Shortly after the announcement Vestager flew to Washington where she will give two speeches on antitrust issues and meet with U.S. regulators before giving two more speeches in New York on Monday.
In a statement after the announcement Alfonso Gutierrez, CEPIC President, said, “If the Commission continues on this level, I am very optimistic that the concerns in regard to copying (images) others web content (known as 'scraping') that promotes piracy, will be fully analyzed and finally corrected. We at CEPIC will continue feeding the European Commission with the relevant data. In principle the Commission's step-by-step approach on Google cases should be welcomed as it allows the Commission to make a methodical approach to do the job faster.”
In Europe Google has 90% of the search market compared with 67% in the United States.