Antitrust: Google faces EU investigation over advertising and ranking

by Steve Ragan - Nov 30 2010, 15:30

The European Commission has said that they are planning to open an antitrust investigation against Google based on complaints from competing search service providers.

According to an EU press announcement, the complaints center on “unfavorable treatment” by Google against the competition in Google’s unpaid and sponsored search results.

“The Commission will investigate whether Google has abused a dominant market position in online search by allegedly lowering the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services which are specialized in providing users with specific online content such as price comparisons (so-called vertical search services) and by according preferential placement to the results of its own vertical search services in order to shut out competing services,” the announcement stated.

“The Commission will also look into allegations that Google lowered the 'Quality Score' for sponsored links of competing vertical search services. The Quality Score is one of the factors that determine the price paid to Google by advertisers.”

Additionally, the EU said that they will focus on allegations that Google imposes exclusivity obligations on advertising partners, “…preventing them from placing certain types of competing ads on their web sites, as well as on computer and software vendors, with the aim of shutting out competing search tools.”

The final complaint that will be investigated deals with suspected restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign data. The search service providers claim that Google prevents them from moving key search terms from AdWords to other services.

According to Bloomberg, Google said that they have “worked hard to do the right thing by our users and our industry” by marking ads clearly and enabling users and advertisers to move data to other services.

“There’s always going to be room for improvement and so we’ll be working with the commission to address any concerns,” Google added.

The probe by the EU has no solid deadline and “does not imply that the Commission has proof of any infringements. It only signifies that the Commission will conduct an in-depth investigation of the case as a matter of priority.”

“There is no legal deadline to complete inquiries into anticompetitive conduct. Their duration depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of each case and the extent to which the undertakings concerned co-operate with the Commission.”

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