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In an Open Letter To EU's Competition Commissioner, 14 European Shopping Comparison Services Say Google is Not Making the Search For Products Fairer (bbc.com)
Google is not complying with European demands that it must make the search for products fairer, rivals say. In an open letter to the EU's Competition Commissioner on Thursday, they wrote: We are writing to you as leading European comparison shopping services (CSSs) to express our collective view that Google's "compliance mechanism" in the Google Search (Comparison Shopping) case does not comply with the European Commission's June 2017 Prohibition Decision. It has now been more than a year since Google introduced its auction-based "remedy", and the harm to competition, consumers and innovation caused by Google's illegal conduct has continued unabated. We therefore respectfully urge you to commence non-compliance proceedings against Google. BBC offers some background: In June 2017, European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager ruled that Google had abused its power by promoting its own shopping service at the top of search results, and demanded that it provide equal treatment to rival comparison sites in future. She issued a record fine of $2.7bn -- the largest penalty the European Commission has ever imposed. She also demanded that Google end its anti-competitive practices within 90 days or face further costs. Google is still appealing against the fine, but has come up with a system that it says makes shopping fairer. It changed the shopping box, which is displayed at the top of search results, so that it is no longer populated with just Google Shopping ad results, but gives space to other shopping comparison services, who can bid for advertising slots.
why in hell anyone would think they should be forced to host their competitors in their place of business is a complete mystery.
Because society belongs to all of us real people, not to Google. We paid the taxes to fund its services and contribute to its defense. Although, companies like Google have shirked their tax responsibilities so arguably they should have even less say in our society because they haven't paid their fair share towards its maintenance. However, to answer your question, Google can be forced to follow our rules by force of our laws which are backed up by our police and ultimately by our armies. In short, by force of arms and right of victory from which flows sovereignty. Humans have been using violence to organize society and enforce rules since the beginning of history, there's nothing mysterious about that.
Should they give free adds to Amazon ? After all Amazon serves as a shopping service ? What about Ebay ?
They should pay their fair share of taxes and follow the rules. How about we start with that.
The EU has always been horribly obvious about being bought and paid for by European aristocrats, the ancien regime that never really went away, this is just a further attempt by them to shakedown a deep pocket.
On the contrary, the Europeans have rendered us Americans a great service by enacting the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and I salute them for having the courage to do it in the face of corporate lies.
Foundem is not an apple farmer it is a competing railroad. They are demanding that since they don't have tracks and Google does then their trains should get to run on Google's tracks for free. Google is willing to allow Foundem trains on its tracks but says they have to pay for the privilege since it is not free to build and maintain tracks.