Google Break-Up Ordered In EU Antitrust Case. Brussels - - The European Union's Parliament has voted to break up Mountainview, CA-based search engine giant Google after an anittrust case revealed Google yielded too much power in the search engine industry. Reports say that it is not just EU lawmakers that want a Google Break-Up Ordered In EU Antitrust Case but also U.S. rivals competing against Google - Expedia, TripAdvisor and Microsoft.
These rivals and the large sums of money they spent for lobbying are in the fourth year of an investigation encircling Google Break-Up Ordered In EU Antitrust Case by the EU Commission. The Commission is looking into the possibility of Google favoring specific Web sites by using its dominance in Web searches.
One EU official told Reuters via the Malaymail, "The American companies are using the European Commission as a battleground among themselves, adding, "They are the ones coming to us with complaints.
Richmond, Seattle-based MIcrosoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was fined a whopping $700 million by the EU Commission for 'piggy-backing' the IE explorer on new PCs. The U.S. antitrust agency ruled last year that Google had not violated monopoly rules and dropped its inquiry into the claim.
Bert Foer, chief of the American Antitrust Institute reiterated that U.S. tech companies "are all playing on a little playing field," adding, "Naturally they're going to move fastest and farthest in jurisdictions that have more favorable laws."
Google has retorted with a response by its public policy chief in Brussels Antoine Aubert saying he was concerned about the Commission''s clause to 'unbundle' Internet search engines."This call isn't supported by the findings of the European Commission or the outcome of a similar investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S.," wrote Aubert in an email, published in WSJ.com.
Meanwhile, the U.S. said the the Google Break-Up Ordered In EU Antitrust Case probing should not be politicized during the debate to unbundle Google's Internet search from commercial services. "In case the proceedings against Google carry on without any satisfying decisions and the current anti-competitive behavior continues to exist, a regulation of the dominant online web search should be envisaged," legislators were quoted as saying by itpro.uk
