FairSearch, a coalition of Internet travel companies claiming that Google thwarts competition, applauded Monday's statement from the European Commission (E.C.) expressing concern that four areas of Google business practices "may be considered as abuses of dominance."
E.C. vice president Joaquín Almunia said that an investigation "followed a number of complaints."
The E.C.'s investigation found that Google's general search results displayed links to its own vertical search services "differently than it does for links to competitors."
"We are concerned that this may result in preferential treatment compared to those of competing services, which may be hurt as a consequence," Almunia wrote.
Secondly, the E.C. said Google may be copying original material from the websites of its competitors, such as user reviews, and using that material on its own sites, thus benefiting from the investment of its competitors.
"We are worried that this could reduce competitors' incentives to invest in the creation of original content for the benefit of Internet users," Almunia said. "This practice may impact, for instance, travel sites or sites providing restaurant guides."
The EC's third and fourth concerns centered on Google's practices in terms of online advertising, which the E.C. found shuts out "competing providers of search advertising intermediation services" and restricts the campaigns of competing online search advertisers.
Thomas Vinje, an attorney for FairSearch in the European Union, said the group was pleased with the E.C.'s investigation, and that it "has validated the concern that FairSearch members and many other businesses and consumer advocates have raised about Google’s practices that distort the free market and deprive consumers of the transparency and real choice that only results from competitive markets."
Vinje added that FairSearch would welcome "a rapid and permanent change in Google’s business practices that could potentially result from a settlement between the European Commission and Google. We agree that a quick resolution to the harms that Google’s practices cause would be best for innovators and consumers."
Almunia said that the E.C. is giving Google the opportunity to offer remedies to address the concerns it has identified, which were detailed in a letter to Google, to try and resolve the situation quickly.
"I believe that these fast-moving markets would particularly benefit from a quick resolution of the competition issues identified," Almunia wrote. "Restoring competition swiftly to the benefit of users at an early stage is always preferable to lengthy proceedings, although these sometimes become indispensable to competition enforcement."
Almunia said he offered Google "to come up in a matter of weeks with first proposals of remedies to address each of these points."
"If Google comes up with an outline of remedies which are capable of addressing our concerns, I will instruct my staff to initiate the discussions in order to finalize a remedies package," Almunia said.
Expedia and TripAdvisor, both FairSearch members, had filed complaints with the E.C. this year, alleging that Google engages in business practices that violate European Union competition and consumer-protection laws.
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