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posted by cmn32480 on Tuesday April 28 2015, @01:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-search-engine-sees-all dept.

Reuters has revealed 18 of the 19 official complainants forming the basis of the European Union's anti-trust case against Google. Yelp's public policy director Luther Lowe told Reuters that "It's been clear from our meetings that U.S.-based companies have helped lead the charge by providing substantive evidence of Google's harm to consumers." The Register has this handy list:

  • BDZV, an organization of German newspaper publishers
  • Ejustice, a French legal search engine
  • Elfvoetbal, a Dutch football (soccer) news site
  • Euro-Cities, a German provider of city maps
  • Expedia, a US travel site
  • Foundem, a UK price comparison site
  • Hot-map, a German mapping firm
  • ICOMP, a UK-based organization for online businesses
  • Microsoft
  • Nextag, a US price comparison site
  • nnpt.it, an Italian online news aggregator
  • Odigeo, a group of travel sites headquartered in Spain
  • Streetmap, a UK road mapping service
  • TripAdvisor, a US travel site
  • VDZ, a German magazine publishers association
  • VfT, a German business listing site
  • Visual-Meta, a German lifestyle shopping aggregator
  • Yelp, a US business rating and comparison site
  • An anonymous complainant

[More after the Break]

In related news, eBay CEO John Donahoe told the Financial Times that the company is a major competitor to Google in the online shopping space, potentially supporting Google's case that it is not dominant in that market. However, "one of the first complainants to the European Commission, Shivaun Raff, founder of price-comparison service Foundem, told El Reg that the FT may be overstating the case":

"I suspect the FT has got the wrong end of the stick and misinterpreted a nuanced comment about the extent to which different kinds of services compete with each other," she said.

Less than two weeks ago, the search monster was slapped with a Statement of Objections (SO) by the EU Commission for abusing its dominant market position in search by directing users to its own Shopping service. Such a move is usually the first step on the road to punitive measures.

Google's argument is that is is not abusing dominance in the online shopping market because it is not dominant in that market – this is where Donahoe's comments will help Eric Schmidt sleep well at night.

However, complainants argue that merchant sites like eBay and Amazon are distinct from price-comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket.Com, Nextag and Twenga.

According to its own rules, the Commission's first step in a so-called Article 102 investigation is to assess whether the undertaking concerned is dominant or not. "Defining the relevant market is essential for assessing dominance, because a dominant position can only exist on a particular market. The relevant product market is made of all products/services which the consumer considers to be a substitute for each other due to their characteristics, their prices and their intended use," according to Commission rules.

Given that an SO has already been issued, it is likely that Vestager has already thought about this and come to the conclusion that Google is abusing dominance.

According to Raff, "Google is putting a brave face on it, but there is no question that this is the beginning of the end... Not even Google's formidable PR machine can put this genie back in the bottle."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:02PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:02PM (#176060)

    So Microsoft is advising about "harm to consumers". Well, admittedly they would know.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:12PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:12PM (#176065) Journal

    A little context, Microsoft's involvement in the EU case has been known for years, these other companies were unknown.

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    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:28PM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:28PM (#176074)

      I thought their previous involvement was in a different (similar) case.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:46PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday April 28 2015, @02:46PM (#176080) Journal

        http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-15/ok-google-how-did-the-eu-get-to-this-point-a-timeline [bloomberg.com]

        * February 2010: Joaquin Almunia starts to examine Microsoft Corp.’s antitrust complaint against Google as he takes over as the EU’s competition commissioner.

        * March 2011: Microsoft Corp. expands its complaint beyond Internet searches to online video and mobile phones.

        * April 9, 2013: A group representing Microsoft, Expedia and Nokia Oyj file an antitrust complaint against Google over its Android operating system. The group says the EU should investigate Google’s “deceptive conduct to lockout competition” in the mobile market.

        * December 2014: Google’s rivals are questioned by EU regulators as Vestager weighs the next steps in the antitrust probe.

        * March 2015: Google’s antitrust foes are asked to allow the search-engine giant to see secret evidence they gave to EU regulators in a sign that officials could be preparing to escalate their investigation, according two people familiar with the case.

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        • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by Nerdfest on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:33PM

          by Nerdfest (80) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:33PM (#176106)

          "deceptive conduct to lockout competition in the mobile market." And this case isn't against Apple?

          • (Score: 2) by Tork on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:33PM

            by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:33PM (#176213)

            "deceptive conduct to lockout competition in the mobile market." And this case isn't against Apple?

            Wot?

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          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdfest on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:34PM

            by Nerdfest (80) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @07:34PM (#176215)

            Troll? Did you know that Apple is now blocking apps that mention Pebble support [androidpolice.com]? Get a life.

            • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @10:15PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @10:15PM (#176283)

              Yeah, well, you dared to suggest bad things about Apple, inventer of the MP3 player, windowed desktop, home computer, discoverer of colors, designer of rounded corners, and of course, protector of all that is Good.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:09PM

          by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @06:09PM (#176181) Journal

          If Google crushes Microsoft. Bonus point! :P

          The whole antitrust complaint smells rat anyway. They are just gaming the government courts.

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:16PM

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:16PM (#176096) Homepage Journal

    What is this "Microsoft"? Every other contributor on this list merits a short explanation except for Microsoft.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:38PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @03:38PM (#176109)

      As the name already says, it is a very small company; the submitters probably couldn't find any further information about it.

      I think they are in the business of selling architectural elements; at least I've found some indication that they sell windows.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 28 2015, @04:03PM (#176129)

    > So Microsoft is advising about "harm to consumers". Well, admittedly they would know.

    Corporations have no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.