U.S. – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) answered the European Commission‘s Antitrust Charges on Thursday. The senior staff issued a formal response saying they were not the monopoly overlord of the digital world, but the stalwart of online competition.
The European Union believes the company abuses its dominant position with its advertisement service (AdSense) and price comparison service (Google Shopping) to shut down rivals in several markets.
Google Senior Vice President, Kent Walker, said the claims about Google Shopping were wrong and that the European Commission did not present enough evidence to support the claim.
Instead, Google assures its services help advertisers, consumers, and even some competitors find the information they need on the Internet, and assured they had not restricted the local digital market.
Google says improving quality isn’t anti-competitive
Google says the solid presence of companies like Amazon in Europe is a sign of how their search engine is not harming the competition, and rather the online shopping market is highly competitive while Amazon is the “largest player on the field.”
The tech giant also argues its improved systems are helping users and merchants alike, while Google never compromises the quality of the relevant information that appears on their top pages.
In other words, Walker wrote Google is not trying to hinder the competition, but merely listening to customers and showing what they want to see.
Meanwhile, the company is facing three different antitrust charges yet to respond to a third EU antitrust complaint. It claims Google uses its Android mobile OS as a “Trojan horse” to promote its products and services at the expense of rivals.
Ken Walker said the company would respond to Android Statement of Complaints “in the days to come.”
Google is reportedly placing third-party ads on other company’s sites
There is a back-and-forth battle between Alphabet’s Google and Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s top antitrust official. The standoff is defining Europe’s weary relationship with US technology masters, including Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), and Facebook (FB).
The case against Google Shopping and AdSense traces back to 2010. It speaks of how Google has restricted consumers’ choices by placing its offers on the top of their search engine and giving priority to Google’s advertisement tools on all of the company’s domains.
The recent antitrust charges claim why Google unfairly favors Google Shopping in its general search result pages, and that the company is abusing its dominant market position to offer some AdSense banners on other organizations’ websites.
“It means consumers may not see the most relevant results to their search queries. We have also raised concerns that Google has hindered competition by limiting the ability of its competitors to place search adverts on third party websites,” said competition commissioner Vestager on July.
The European Commission will consider Google’s response before going forward. Either way, Google could end up paying billions in fines. It would require a complete overhaul of its operations in Silicon Valley.
Source: Google Blogs
