Google hits back at antitrust accusations
The European Union formally charged the company Wednesday morning with abusing its search-engine dominance. In a blog post, a Google exec challenged that accusation with data.
The European Union is accusing Google of using its search dominance to unfairly shut out competitors, and Google is vocally defending itself.
The European Commission’s primary, formal accusation issued Wednesday is that Google “diverts traffic from its rivals to favor its own products and services, particularly websites for shopping,” according to The New York Times. Competitors in areas including mapping and travel have complained.
The commission—which comprises representatives from the 28 EU nations—is also investigating whether smartphone makers that use the Android operating system in their phones are contractually required to include Google-branded apps in prominent spots.
Google is pushing back against the charges as one might expect: with data. A blog post written by Amit Singhal, the company’s senior vice president of search, includes four graphs that show how Google compares against travel sites in Germany and against shopping sites in Germany, France and the United Kingdom. In all of them, Google comes in well below competitors.
Singhal writes:
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