European Parliament wants Google broken up

[fjtorres]

From CNET:

http://www.cnet.com/news/european-pa...e-report-says/

The European Parliament is getting ready to call for a breakup of Google, according to a report Friday by the Financial Times.

A draft motion cited by the FT suggests the separation, or "unbundling," of the Internet giant's search engine from its other services, as one way to challenge Google's dominance. The resolution has the support of Europe's two main political parties, the European People's Party and the Socialists, the FT said.

"It's unprecedented," said David Balto, a Washington, DC-based antitrust attorney and former policy director at the US Federal Trade Commission. He added that he couldn't think of any other example where a governing body got in the middle of a competition case, like the European Parliament is said to be here.

More at the source and also here:

http://www.cnet.com/news/with-new-co...mes-in-europe/

[eschwartz]

I believe China also strikes out against competitive businesses not run by the State...

[rollei]

And Microsoft too..

As things stand today, a breakup would be a bit premature. Google may be the dominant player in several markets, but they are far from the only player. For example: the competition is much more robust than the competition Microsoft has faced in the desktop computer market since the late 1980's.

That said, I can definitely see why people would be concerned about anti-trust. There is a huge conflict of interest between their search engine and the other products that they offer. They could use their search engine to give preferential treatment to their own products or to customers of their own products. The latter could be used to give their advertising services a boost, as one example. While it isn't clear that Google is abusing their dominance in the search engine market, the potential is certainly a cause for concern. That's especially true when you consider how aggressive Google has become with respect to Android. While it is possible to ship Android based devices without Google's services, Google has been using the dominance of their App store to ensure that most Android devices are a platform for all Google services. In other words, they don't always play clean.

In other words, Google should be scrutinized even if it is premature to break them up.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

They could use their search engine to give preferential treatment to their own products or to customers of their own products.

Instead they give preferential treatment to advertisers who paid for their services. So long as advertisements can be identified as such, why would it be worse to give preferential placement to Google-branded products as opposed to non-Google branded products where the marketer paid for the placement?

www.amazon.com can be seen as a specialized search engine. Looked at that way, it's probably the number two search engine after google. Putting aside books, it seems to me that if Google would be wrong to favor nexus phones, Amazon is wrong to favor the fire phone. So should Amazon be forced to spin off it's search functionality?

These firms are not all the same. Google is better. Contrast the restraint of the first link below with the heavy advertising content seen as you scroll down the second link:


https://news.google.com/

http://news.yahoo.com/

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

As things stand today, a breakup would be a bit premature. Google may be the dominant player in several markets, but they are far from the only player. For example: the competition is much more robust than the competition Microsoft has faced in the desktop computer market since the late 1980's.

That said, I can definitely see why people would be concerned about anti-trust. There is a huge conflict of interest between their search engine and the other products that they offer. They could use their search engine to give preferential treatment to their own products or to customers of their own products. The latter could be used to give their advertising services a boost, as one example. While it isn't clear that Google is abusing their dominance in the search engine market, the potential is certainly a cause for concern. That's especially true when you consider how aggressive Google has become with respect to Android. While it is possible to ship Android based devices without Google's services, Google has been using the dominance of their App store to ensure that most Android devices are a platform for all Google services. In other words, they don't always play clean.

In other words, Google should be scrutinized even if it is premature to break them up.

All valid points.
But the anti-Google efforts for the most part aren't concerned with any of those.
What they really want is to squeeze money out of google to feed local legacy media. If google started "sharing the wealth" the concerns would go away just like the Microsoft concerns went away with a nice big fine.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

In other words, Google should be scrutinized even if it is premature to break them up.

They've already been and are currently being scrutinized. They've also agreed to terms to keep them from using their Internet search business from being unfair to other competitors. It looks like Microsoft has been buying some influence under the table with these government bureaucrats. And, by the way, doesn't Microsoft have close to 90% of the desktop market? Shouldn't they be broken up? Fair is fair, after all.

[QuantumIguana]

Google is big because they provide services that people like to use. It's not something like the phone company or Standard Oil, where competitors couldn't enter the market. Nothing prevents some other company from offering better services.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

Google is big because they provide services that people like to use. It's not something like the phone company or Standard Oil, where competitors couldn't enter the market. Nothing prevents some other company from offering better services.

It's true, but the EU Parliament is insane with their own power.

[crich70]

What do you want to bet that if Google is broken up that some EU company will rise to a similar position to Google and not be challenged? Human nature being what it is.

[fjtorres]

Reuters offers more context:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...0J525V20141121

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry, and have sought ways to curb their power.

Turns out the resolution is broader than just Google:

The motion seen by Reuters "calls on the Commission to consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services as one potential long-term solution" to leveling the competitive playing field.

That phrasing would hit any website with built-in search, like Amazon and Apple, Yahoo and XBOX LIVE. A9 and Bing would also be impacted. On purpose, apparently:

Jan Philipp Albrecht of the Greens said: "Search engines like Google should not be allowed to use their market power to push forward other commercial activities of the same company."

[crich70]

Jan Philipp Albrecht of the Greens said: "Search engines like Google should not be allowed to use their market power to push forward other commercial activities of the same company."

That could be taken further. If a company sells a product then they can't use in house advertising to promote their own product. Really I think it's a matter of sour grapes myself. The U.S. is where a lot of the computer revolution came about and it's natural that programs built by american companies would promote products made by other american companies. After all as companies here in the U.S. joined the modern cyber world we have now they began to use the software that was available to their own advantage. is it their fault that the EU companies didn't follow suit?

[Billi]

I think the background for these actions is not so much an economical but a political one - the actions of your NSA as hinted in this quote from the Reuters article that fjtorres linked to in post 11

Google has tried to counter that mistrust, which its executives believe is linked to European perceptions of the United States in general. But recent revelations about U.S. surveillance practices, including that Washington monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone, have ignited a strong backlash, particularly in Germany, where the historic experiences of Nazism and Communism have left people deeply suspicious of powerful institutions controlling personal data.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Billi

I think the background for these actions is not so much an economical but a political one - the actions of your NSA as hinted in this quote from the Reuters article that fjtorres linked to in post 11

Exactly.
This isn't even new.

Politicians on that side of the pond are always on the lookout for ways to tilt the market towards their friends in local industry. Every country does it to one extent or another (most commonly through subtle and not so subtle currency manipulations and tariffs) but the Brusselcrats gave up on subtlety ages ago and American companies have been thrir preferred targets fir decades now.

GE, Lockheed, Boeing, Monsanto, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Adobe, and now Google. You're really nobody on the global scale if you're not targeted or vilified in Brussels at one time or another. Sometimes both.

Their main problem is treaties forbid crafting laws targeting one specific foreign company which is why the French denied the "Amazon law" was targeted at Amazon (riiiight!) and why the draft resolution doesn't mention Google by name. The real problem is they're likely to end up with an overbroad regulation or law that'll wreck havoc all over. Kinda like the "right to be forgotten" thing which is only starting to play out.

Next target: Tesla.
I give it six years, maximum, before the whining begins over the GigaFactory and Tesla's market power.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Next target: Tesla.

He's dead