Google ‘Making Positive Moves’ To Avoid Search Competition Fine

Google has impressed the competition crew at the European Commission and could avoid a fine over its much-criticised search practices.

European competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said a settlement was increasingly likely thanks to fresh concessions from Google.

Google competition problems

The company had been asked by the Commission to make a slew of changes to its search product, following complaints from the likes of Microsoft and British firm Foundem. Google’s rivals claimed it was unfairly promoting its own services over competitors in results.

In April, Google made various concessions, saying it would clearly label its specialised services, separating them from competitors’ offerings to make it clear they were not part of “natural” search results. It also said it would get rid of obligations requiring customers not to source online search advertisements exclusively from competitors.

But the complainants slammed the concessions, saying labelling was not the right way forward.

Google has now come back with more concessions, which competition commissioner Almunia praised. “Many respondents during the market test said that in this Google proposal the links to rivals that would be displayed for certain categories of specialised search services were not visible enough,” he said during a European Parliament hearing.

“In my opinion, the new proposal makes these links significantly more visible. A larger space of the Google search result page is dedicated to them.

“Market test respondents also contested the organisation of the proposed auction to determine the rival links that would be displayed on Google’s search results page for the most commercial categories of specialised search services.

“The new proposal foresees an auction mechanism which includes the option to bid for each specific query. This is important to also ensure that smaller specialized search operators can be displayed.”

Almunia said a key moment had been reached in the case, saying the significant improvements meant “the settlement route remains the best choice”, rather than issuing a hefty fine.

If everything goes to plan and the Commission is satisfied with Google’s changes, a formal decision will be announced next Spring, Almunia added.

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