EU regulators probe Google dominance

EUROPEAN UNION REGULATORS are starting an investigation into Google and whether it is too big and too powerful.

The EU Competition Commission will look at the internet search giant's market share and try to decide whether any action needs to be taken.

"As part of our current investigation, we are trying to determine whether the company holds a dominant position in internet search," said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia during a speech at a competition conference in Florence.

"Google is the browser of choice for very many of us; but dominance is not the same as abuse of dominance. Abuse is a conduct that protects or extends dominance by illegitimate means, and we still have to conclude whether this is the case for Google," he added.

This is not the first time that the Brussels monocle has peered at Google and it is already under inspection following a complaint from Microsoft.

This seems to be far more wide reaching however, and the commissioner added that regulators will consider whether Google is in a position to influence its users and their behaviour. He also cautioned that letting the company get too large could give it too much of a hold of its users.

"Another important issue in this case, for instance, is determining whether Google holds a position of gate keeper and is able to influence the behaviour of internet users," he added.

"Finally, the Google case is also a good example that timely intervention is crucial in fast-moving technology markets, which often feature network and lock-in effects. As the Court of Justice has recently stated in the Telia/Sonera case, action is required 'before the anti-competitive effects of a strategy are realised'."

Other firms are already under the EU spotlight, including Intel' acquisition of McAfee and Microsoft's buyout of Skype. Here Almunia suggested that investigations are quite well advanced and that in the case of the former, are likely to continue without problems.

"We eventually cleared the deal in Phase 1 after we made sure that the products of the new company would remain open to the security solutions of McAfee's competitors. And it seems that the remedies we accepted are working well in practice. There will be more interesting merger cases in this sector, including the proposed deal between Microsoft and Skype," he said.

"But the real challenge for us in these markets is separating the potential for innovation from the potentially excessive market power a company can acquire." µ