Joaquin Almunia, the European Union (E.U) competition commissioner has reiterated his concerns over Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s “abuses of dominance” by giving the company a deadline to express its desire to comply with E.U’s requirements. Google has until early July, to prove to the commissioner that it is willing to accept the complaint as stated and follow the recommended route to a solution.
Mr. Almunia highlighted a date, May 21, whence he claims to have sent a letter to the tech giant detailing his concerns in Google’s business practices, as identified in the preliminary investigations conducted by the body back in November 2010. Almunia’s concerns include the manner in which Google displays its services, whereby he expressed that, it is likely to be “copying original material” from other websites, as reported on CNET. Other concerns include Google’s way of handling search adverts.
Almunia expects Google to address his concerns as outlined; otherwise, his organization will file a formal antitrust complaint against the Internet search market leader. He also expressed his desire for a quick resolution to the case, which he believes would be very beneficial to all the stakeholder in search engine business.
Additionally, Almunia believes that all involved parties better have a positive mindset toward solving the issues, because this will restore competition swiftly in fast-moving markets.
Soon after the E.U competition commissioner’s detailed outline of his concerns, Google responded to CNET with its own view of events, citing its disapproval of the conclusions made by the European Union commissioner. Google decried by pointing out that the competition on the web had increased significantly over the last couple of years.
The search engine believes that, from the time the commissioner started his inquiry into the matter, it has faced tremendous pressure from other competitors in the industry.
Recently, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) search engine, Bing, announced developments that will likely put more pressure on Google in maintaining its market leader status. Further more, social media sites, such as Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) have also made clear intentions of exploring the search engine business.
