Bad news for Google, again, from the European Union, according to advance The country. Brussels returns to accuse the search engine company of abusing its dominant position in the market in the issue of the advertising market that started a few years ago
. Some accusations that, of course, are not the first to come from the legislator and the European regulator. But not only that, it also recommends that the company divest part of its business.
It doesn’t have so much to do, this time, with Android or with the search engine itself, but with Google’s digital advertising division. The European Commission considers that the technology company has a dominant position in the market which generates a series of conflicts of interest within the single market.
And anticipate the most feared recommendation by many of the big technology companies: only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would solve its competition problems. Basically, the European Union recommends Google to sell part of its business to a third party in order to avoid this conflict of interest and, therefore, affect the interests of the advertising market.
For Google to sell part of its business seems to be the only solution
In fact, the Brussels recommendation has a double purpose: on the one hand, to serve as a sanction for Google, not as much as if it were a fine, and on the other hand, it is the only recommendation that, according to the Commission, it would allow the market to function more equitably and fairly. Basically, it would be the only solution for Google to stop having a position of abuse of power in the advertising market.
In this regard, the current vice president and competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has been especially blunt with the search engine company: “Google has illegally distorted the market.” The Commission, in its communication of resultsalso ensures that this remedy is the only solution to put an end to the problem: “as long as these conflicts of interest remain in force, Google could continue with said practices or could get involved in new ones.
In addition, it ensures that it is the only solution, since any other remedy It would mean that Google simply has to change its behavioror, but that “it would allow you to continue doing what you’ve been doing up to now, just under a different guise.”
As usual, Google will now have the opportunity to respond to the Commission’s conclusions and allege what it deems appropriate for its defense. And logically, the last word will be the European judges.