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Google Slapped With $2.7 Billion By EU For Skewing Searches (bloomberg.com)
Google suffered a major regulatory blow on Tuesday after European antitrust officials fined the search giant 2.4 billion euros, or $2.7 billion, for unfairly favoring some of its own search services over those of rivals. The European Commission concluded that the search giant abused its near-monopoly in online search to "give illegal advantage" to its own Shopping service. Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner, said Google "denied other companies the chance to compete" and left consumers without "genuine choice." The hefty fine marks the latest chapter in a lengthy standoff between Europe and Google, which also faces two separate charges under the region's competition rules related to Android, its popular mobile software, and to some of its advertising products. From a report: Google has 90 days to "stop its illegal conduct" and give equal treatment to rival price-comparison services, according to a binding order from the European Commission on Tuesday. It's up to Google to choose how it does this and it must tell the EU within 60 days of its plans. Failure to comply brings a risk of fines of up to 5 percent of its daily revenue. [...] "I expect the Commission now to swiftly conclude the other two ongoing investigations against Google," Markus Ferber, a member of the European Parliament from Germany. "Unfortunately, the Google case also illustrates that competition cases tend to drag on for far too long before they are eventually resolved. In a fast-moving digital economy this means often enough that market abuse actually pays off and the abuser succeeds in eliminating the competition." Google has been pushing its own comparison shopping service since 2008, systematically giving it prominent placement when people search for an item, the EU said. Rival comparison sites usually only appear on page four of search results, effectively denying them a massive audience as the first page attracts 95 percent of all clicks. In a blog post, Google said the EU has "underestimated" the value Google's services brings to the table. "We believe the European Commission's online shopping decision underestimates the value of those kinds of fast and easy connections. While some comparison shopping sites naturally want Google to show them more prominently, our data show that people usually prefer links that take them directly to the products they want, not to websites where they have to repeat their searches. We think our current shopping results are useful and are a much-improved version of the text-only ads we showed a decade ago. Showing ads that include pictures, ratings, and prices benefits us, our advertisers, and most of all, our users. And we show them only when your feedback tells us they are relevant. Thousands of European merchants use these ads to compete with larger companies like Amazon and eBay. [...] Given the evidence, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions announced today. We will review the Commission's decision in detail as we consider an appeal, and we look forward to continuing to make our case," wrote Kent Walker, SVP and General Counsel at Google.
I'm not sure how this one works. Google can find information, in this case about products. Searching for a product would normally just bring up Amazon, and skip the price comparison altogether. Is Google just not allowed to supply this service?
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If you break the law, you have to face the consequences. Thankfully the legal system here does appear to much more fair than across the pond, and those that unlawfully abuse their power in the market will get slapped down.
This judgement makes me happy.
(as an aside, it does also bring revenue in from an entity that appears to abuse the Dutch Sandwich tax process..)
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
This fine is moronic on so many levels I'm just cringing in disbelief:
Monopolies aren't illegal. Its abusing your dominant position that's illegal (like using your monopoly on search results to push your other products above those of your competitors).
WTF is equal treatment? Someone grew a profitable business and got a shitload of money, which allows him to pay for the top tier hookers. Shall I sue him for equal treatment because the only hookers I could afford are ugly and fat? Why?
The EU doesn't sell a shopping service so what the fuck are you talking about?
Google "denied other companies the chance to compete" and left consumers without "genuine choice."
We should start right there. Who forces anyone to use Google in the first place?
Once upon a time a European country making a fuss about anything was yawn worthy for a large, multinational corporation.
Here's a $2.7 billion fine - that time of regulatory commissions having no teeth is over.
I know I know...when the UK leaves the EU it can have it's fat politicians bribed for peanuts in comparison and bent over by such a large company also because it will be desperate for tax revenue...but for now let's enjoy the regulatory muscle provided by "unelected officials".
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
I live in Finland which is part of EU. I haven't even heard about this Google Shopping before. Is this feature shown only in some countries?
I tried disabling ad blocker and still couldn't get anything like that to appear. I even googled for "Google Shopping" and while the main page of it loads, it doesn't show any products when I try to click some of the categories or when I try to search products.
'Cut a check' is a long established idiom. Welcome to English.
No that's American. In English it's cheque
(ducks)!
This is still the old grudge after they could not manage to compete with Google with their bullshit idea of "Quaero" which was pushed by French government and failed, because Google is simply too successful in their business.
You need to be blind not to see that they punish Google, Microsoft and Apple for getting special deals or advantages for the EU economy. They don't want to harm them too much. They want a money source. If they would like to harm them, they would go after Microsoft's and Apple's bundling of software and hardware (aka OEM) and Google's personal data transparency.
Remember the browser war with Microsoft? If the EU were consequent, they would force Microsoft to advertise Open/Libre and other Office suites with every offer and sale they make. Sound stupid? Yes, this is all is stupid!
Well it isn't a monopoly. We have Microsoft Bing as a search alternative. If Google Were to go out of business and close its doors, They are companies and services that could pick right up.
EU doesn't always attack US Companies. However it would be naive to think that the EU won't take care of its self interests before a non member countries.
Free market to an extent is still needed otherwise the push to innovate will diminish. European built products are normally known for its quality, however not for its innovation. So when a brand new game changer innovation comes out from an other country, US, Japan, China, India... Europe tends to get very defensive about it, until they can make their much nicer version of it.
But where is the European Premium Google alternative? China has Alibaba.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
The commission is very serious, but unfortunately Google can tie up the process for years/decades.
Intel has been battling the EU commission since 2009 (http://ec.europa.eu/competition/sectors/ICT/intel.html), but the EU commission has all the teeth of an earthworm.
Deciding that Google "should" pay money isn't the same as Google actually paying the money.
Germany is a founding member of the EU (and it's predecessors). There is no general anti-EU sentiment in Germany. Germany is one of the least-likely candidates to leave the EU.
I'm confused. Did you just put forward a conspiracy where EU is abusing it's law enforcement powers, only to later admit that this conspiracy doesn't make sense?
But where is the European Premium Google alternative?
https://www.ixquick.eu/
Limeys don't cut checks, they bounce them.
a bit like your president ;-)
Germans know very well how their bread is buttered: all those crappy southern European countries depress the value of the Euro to the benefit of German exports. Leaving the EU and returning to the DM will quickly see their currency appreciate.
Anyway, your comments are totally out of touch with the reality on the ground. Despite frustration with the likes of Greece and the recent appearance of parties like the AfD and Pegida, most Germans view the EU very favourably and don't understand this whole stupid Brexit thing. Angela Merkel remains popular, and she continues to lead the EU in the direction of closer integration.
They can't create anything, so they punish those who do. Sad to see the self-appointed "civilization-bringing continent" (as they declare in their ludicrous "constitution") stoop so low. They must be desperate.
They can't create anything? How about the printing press, the first technology that allowed mass distribution of information. The steam engine that powered the industrial revolution. Radio, that allowed information to be transmitted literally across oceans without connecting wires, and to ships. Penicillin, the first antibiotic. Asepsis, that reduced infections after surgery. The balloon, the first tethered balloon, and the first sustained flight of a human using another balloon. The first working telegraph and the first commercial telegraph system. The first railroads and steam locomotives which enabled movement of large cargoes across great distances regularly. Radiation and transmutation of elements. The concept of satellites. X-rays.
So the Europeans can't create anything?
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
APK shut up you racist retard
Everyone knows it is you posting this crap so why not sign it and claim your retard work
Better yet why don't you go coke on some elephant cock instead of posting to slashdot you dumb fuck
hurts as much as being Slapped With $2.7 Billion does?
Slashdot poster: It is perfectly reasonably for any Euro or Asian country to have economic protectionism to protect their companies and the jobs of their citizens.
Slashdot Community: Preach to me sister! Mod that dude up to the sky!!!!!!!!!!!
Trump: It is stupid for America to continually enter one sided trade deals where the other country uses protectionism, and our companies get savaged. We need to start thinking of America first and use protections when they do.
Slashdot Community: Trump and ALL his ideas are evil, even if it matches conventional wisdom on these forums. Mod anyone down who agrees with him, and kill their pets too!!!!!!
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
Here is how the google shopping idea works.
Say you are in the mood to buy a new chair. You go and google 'chair price' or something like that. Several options show up. As it turns out, google favors companies that sell chairs and pay for google advertising. They may not be the most famous company, the best reviewed company, etc. but they will get top billing.
When confronted with a long list, human nature is such that you choose something near the top. We are all lazy and who wants to read that much unnecessary stuff. This makes primacy pretty powerful in a search list. That said, technically google will display non-advertising vendors too, just further down the page or on the dreaded page two.
Keep in mind google also does this for most things, including news services or political discussions that it favors, to shape public opinion. How you are mass manipulated without your awareness is a deep and profound discussion, but that should be saved for another day. Walk before you run grasshopper.
Getting back to the point, google also shapes your searches by 'reading' your gmail and creating profiles about stuff that you have searched. Sadly, by this point, google knows more about you than many of your friends. It will place advertisements on web pages related to what it knows about you. It will also order your search hits based upon what it knows about you.
Keep in mind, nothing is for free. Many people enjoy their "free" browser, "free" email, and "free" search engine without giving a moments thought about how google gives away everything but yet still pays all those California engineers six figure salaries. A wise man once said to me:
"If there is no price on something, then you are the product."
Hope this helps some.
"Liberalism is a very noble idea, currently controlled by some very bad people. Be sure you do not get the two confused.
The least expensive option for them is to keep this in court for the next 30 years, and I expect that's just what they'll do.
One might almost infer that the EU is anti business, or ...anti non-EU business, or...(if one really has the tinfoil hat) anti-US-business.
Trump's a buffoon for wanting to raise protectionist barriers, but the EU deep-pocket-fining US businesses mainly for being successful (particularly in fields where EU businesses are struggling or don't exist) is *just* as stupid.
Hey, I guess it's one way to raise the funds to bail out the monetary union, once the German taxpayers ever get tired of footing the bill for the whole damned thing, right?
Hint: turns out you can't simply bolt the Drachma (or the Lira, or the Peseta) to the Deutsche Mark and get ... a Deutsche Mark. Funny, that.
-Styopa
I'm not an American... ;-)
Riiiiiiiiight! ...
the EU does its best to keep the playing field level in markets, nothing more, nothing less.
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
I seem to remember Google cheerleading when the EU bureaucrats went after MS for similar nonsense. So this is great, hilarious in fact. Also Trump should direct the DOJ to start looking at various EU companies for fake antitrust violations.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Google USERS choose to use Google.
Yes, user choose to use Google.
But Google chooses to use their market position in search to give other Google services an unfair advantage compared to competitors for those other services.
What people like you don't get: This isn't about Googles market domination on search. It's about Google abusing this position to gain an unfair advantage for their other services.
I'd turn off Google for the entire EU for a month, see how they like it.
I'll tell you how they (Google) would like it: Not very much. Loosing a market of 500 M people were Google has some 70-90% market share? That hurts. A lot. And if those people a forced to look for an alternative because Google shut them out, they might find that there actually are alternatives.
So no, Google will not shut out Europe for any amount of time, because that would hurt their bottom line much more than this fine.
"Slapped with $2.7 billion"? Is that like smacking someone with a rolled-up newspaper, but using rolled up $100 bills instead?
Well it isn't a monopoly. We have Microsoft Bing as a search alternative.
The existence of an alternative doesn't define a monopoly. Market power does. Bing has a horrendously low market share given the marketing power behind it. People don't use it just because it's there and that gives google a great deal of power. Even the name of the search engine is used as a verb. Let's not pretend that users won't put up with an incredible amount of abuse before changing especially given Google search's integration with other services and devices.
The more I read their decision, the more I'm convinced this is completely about "sponsored results." At least after a few test searches, a couple things are clear to me:
This statement in the decision is true..
..and this statement in the decision is false..
..unless it's all about the sponsored results (i.e. the results that most users unconsciously skip over; I was doing it before I realized I needed to pay attention to it, in order to understand the EU decision).
It's that simple, right? EU wants Google to include unpaid ads by competitors in their sponsored results? (And for those ads to be as broadly targeted as Google's own ads, to the point of being comically irrelevant most of the time.)
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Google is a search engine.
They provided search engine results.
They put their own search engine for shopping results ahead of random other shopping results.
This is not anti-competitive, this is not unfair, this is *literally their business model*. They provide search results.
I'm sorry if you're unhappy with WHICH results were provided, but if I were Google I would just fucking pull out of the EU entirely and let them discover exactly how much they were getting out of the deal.
First of all this fine is only ~1% of the EU budget so it's peanuts
Over 1.6% of the budget, but also higher than the average net contribution of all but four member states - one of whom is leaving in a couple of years, leaving the EU with a 15% shortfall in its cashflows.
A couple of fines this size each year will help plug that hole nicely.
Just wondering, which or Article 102 applies to Google?
Google is your monopolistic friend:
https://twitter.com/microcente...
They're having a corporate network outage, it seems. Their phones are down too.
I recognize that US law is not governing in this case, but US antitrust law has an element that is directly on point here. One permissible defense that a monopolist can present in the US is that they possess "skill, foresight, and industry" that directly led to their market share. If that defense describes anyone, it describes Google. Not only that, but what standard are the EU authorities advocating? As an example, suppose you are reading a paper copy of The New York Times. Does anyone really expect the Times to direct someone to the internet, or Sports Illustrated, for baseball coverage? Of course not--they will direct the reader to the Sports section of the Times, even though better options exist. Similarly, Macys will direct a customer to "Jewelry, 8th floor" rather than to Tiffany's, even if the customer would be better served by going to Tiffany's. Google is being held to an impossible standard.
Huh... First you try to say they are smart, now you say they are stupid.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
100,000 is a trivially small number of people.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
2.4 billion EUR is getting significant. What will the EU commission do with that money?
Help Greece? (No, just kidding!) Reduce member state contribution to EU budget? Invest in infrastructure? Pay a bonus to members of EU commission?
So many otherwise intelligent people fail to understand the meaning of monopoly market power. This does not mean total control of a market, it means controllilng enough of it to, for example, force terms on customers that would not necessarily be acceptable in the presence of real, credible competition. There's more, but please start with this basic fact.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Google employs more than that.
Also, I never said anything more than that. Save your time to put words in other mouths.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
So falling for a lie, that really shouldn't be believed, isn't stupid... Huh..
It's no wonder you bomb yourselves into rubble, every couple of generations.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Point conceded.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Not the Russia bullsh*t again, please.
Insider trading is a felony
Casteism