{"id":22504,"date":"2014-12-09T05:06:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-09T04:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=22504"},"modified":"2014-12-09T05:06:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-09T04:06:32","slug":"google-break-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/google-break-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Break Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Parliamentarians want Google to split its search business from its other services. Experts say that won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s elected elite want to break up Google. The technology giant, known for its web search engine but offering many other products and services, can too easily promote its own wares, they say. Yet leading experts and academics say it\u2019s not going to happen, calling it a nuclear option that would have made more sense in larger, prior corporate scandals.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament in late October called on Internet companies operating in the regiion to unbundle its search engine from its other commercial properties. The call was clearly directly at Google.<\/p>\n

The non-binding resolution had no legal weight, but sent the strongest signal yet to the European Commission to take action after almost four-years worth of unsuccessful negotiations to settle an ongoing antitrust probe into the company\u2019s business practices. The company has been accused of anti-competitiveness including claims it deliberate buried search results of rival sites and services. The recent motion sought to \u201cprevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newly-elected EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that she would \u201cneed some time\u201d to review the case, which has been kept open by her predecessor Joaqu\u00edn Almunia, and talk to complainants before moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s most likely to happen, and what will hopefully happen, is a continuation of the resolution for which Almunia set the framework before he left office,\u201d says David Balto, a former U.S. Justice Department antitrust lawyer.<\/p>\n

Politics and pressure behind the scenes from Google\u2019s competitors\u2014including Microsoft — <\/span><\/span>have dragged the case out \u201cto draw as much blood as possible,\u201d Balto argues. Shortly after the parliament\u2019s vote, one unnamed senior EU official said that the 28-member state bloc had been used as a \u201cbattleground\u201d by American companies. After three rounds of settlement negotiations, Balto says Google\u2019s efforts to address the matter have resulted in better competition in the region.<\/p>\n

One question is whether the Commission has enough evidence to support moving from seeking a settlement to conducting an infringement procedure. Florian Wagner-von Papp, director of the University College London\u2019s Institute of Global Law, tells Fortune <\/i>that he wishes the EC would \u201cput up or shut up.\u201d Antitrust officials should either charge the search giant with flouting European antitrust law, he says, or drop the case altogether. The alternative? More settlement negotiations and \u201cpolitical mud-slinging\u201d by Google\u2019s supporters and opponents.<\/p>\n

By charging Google with antitrust offenses, the Commission can take any measures it deems necessary to end that infringement. Could that really include a break-up of Google? In theory, yes\u2014the European Commission\u2019s antitrust division has the right to force a company operating in the region to restructure. But Wagner-von Papp is willing to make a big bet that it won\u2019t happen. \u201cThe Commission has to date never imposed a structural remedy in an infringement decision,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Still, a move toward an infringement decision could leave Google facing fines of up to 10 percent of its annual global sales for the affected years, a staggering amount totaling billions of dollars. The reality has been more conservative. The biggest antitrust fine in the region\u2019s history\u2014levied against Intel years ago barely broke 4 percent.<\/p>\n

Splitting up Google by unbundling its search business from its advertising business would leave the company without a way to make money from its search results, Wagner-von Papp says. Such a move is \u201cnonsense,\u201d he says. \u201cThe search engine can be free for users only because Google gets its revenue from advertisers and can channel consumers to their vertical search results,\u201d he says, \u201cmuch like newspapers can be free if it sells ad space for a high price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balto agrees, calling it an \u201cextreme proposal\u201d that few people take seriously. \u201cGoogle relies on a lot of synergies among products and advertising revenue that works across products to do what they do,\u201d he says. Consumers would actually suffer if Google\u2019s search business was unbundled from its advertising services.<\/p>\n

Politics remain a sore point for those involved. The European Parliament\u2019s involvement was unusual without any prior committee inquiry, Brussels-based antitrust solicitor Matthew Hall says, and the parties on each side of Google are pushing for their own resolution to the case.<\/p>\n

During his tenure as Europe\u2019s antitrust chief, Almunia made it clear that he would not be swayed by politics. It\u2019s not yet clear which path Vestager plans to take or which cards she will play to get there. Vestager will \u201cdecide on how to take the ongoing antitrust investigations into Google\u2019s business practices forward once she has heard what those most directly affected by the practices in question have to say,\u201d a spokesperson for the European Commission says.<\/p>\n

Balto is optimistic. \u201cThere are good signs that Vestager will not be swayed,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think the delay will lead to a rush to judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parliamentarians want Google to split its search business from its other services. Experts say that won\u2019t happen. Europe\u2019s elected elite want to break up Google. The technology giant, known for its web search engine but offering many other products and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t