Google settled its antitrust case with European regulators on Wednesday, avoiding billions of dollars in potential fines and without admitting any wrongdoing.
After much negotiation, Google has reached a settlement with European Union antitrust regulators. The deal is not as tough on Google as its competitors had hoped. Under the deal, which is subject to final approval, Google will reserve space near the top of European search pages for its competitors to serve their own results alongside Google's results. This space must be purchased by competitors. In return, Google will avoid a formal probe by EU regulators, any admission of wrongdoing, and a potential fine of up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue. Google's strategy of accommodation has yet again proved to be a useful tool. Last January, Google avoided formal charges in a similar US Federal Trade Commission investigation by volunteering to make some changes to its search practices. This was the third proposal from the Mountain View, California-based company; the first two proposals were shot down by EU regulators. Google users in Europe begin to see search results displayed differently under Wednesday's deal.
Several of Google's competitors are not happy with the settlement and FairSearch Europe, an interest group comprised of Microsoft, Nokia, Expedia, and others, said that accepting Google's offer was "worse than doing nothing." These companies argued that the agreement still put them at a disadvantage since they would now have to pay Google to have their results shown. The EU has said that it will seek feedback from only 18 formal complainants but stated that it does not expect to make any major changes to the settlement.
Photo credit: Jürgen Plasser via Flickr
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