The European Commission has been asked to rule on whether or not to send a Statement of Objection to Google, for abuse of a dominant position, on Wednesday. Two sources close to the case spoke to the AFP on Tuesday. No decision has yet been made, these sources insisted. The Commissary in charge of the case, Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition, must submit the current proposition during a European Commission meeting on Wednesday. Her colleagues must decide whether to support her or not. Mrs Vestager will then leave for a two day visit to the United States.
The European Digital Commissary, Gunther Oettinger, revealed his colleague’s intentions this weekend. He said that he expects the European executive power to publish the results of five years of investigation “in the next few days”. The investigation was done as the internet giant Google was suspected of abusing its dominant position.
“We must encourage or even force platforms and search engines to follow our rules in Europe”, he said during a meeting in Hannover (Germany).
The European competition police mainly criticises the American internet giant for advertising its own specialised services on its pages, rather than competing search engines, for example price comparison sites like Kelkoo or specialised travel sites like Expedia.
The best outcome of a Statement of Objection would be an amical agreement between the Commission and the group. If there’s no agreement, it could lead to a fine of up to 10% of the group’s world-wide turnover, which was 66 billion dollars in 2014.
(Source: Belga)
