“The
European Union Issues Record Fine against Google in Antitrust Case”
“Just google it.” Google’s search engine is so dominant that the
company name has become a verb synonymous with conducting an Internet search.
According to the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager,
Google has become too dominant, at least with respect to comparison shopping
and product searches. For that reason, the European Union (EU) spent seven
years investigating Google’s trade practices. The investigation culminated in
2017 with with a record fine of $2.7 billion and a ruling that Google had
breached EU antitrust regulations by abusing its dominant position in the
search engine market.
“Google
Put Its Shopping Results above Other Search Results”
The EU
claimed that for nearly ten years, Google had promoted its own comparison
shopping service at the expense of competitors. It did this by “positioning and
prominently displaying its comparison shopping service in its general search
result pages, irrespective of its merits.” As a result, “users [did] not
necessarily see the most relevant results in response to queries—to the
detriment of consumers and rival comparison shopping services.”
Google has
contended that it cannot change its core software and that the results in its
search algorithms are based on relevance. In addition, Google has argued that
it has actually boosted traffic to its Web competitors. Indeed, search engines
have proliferated on the Web, suggesting that Google’s success has not
eliminated competition.
Nevertheless,
the EU’s decision ordered Google to change the way it displays search results
in the EU—or face more fines. When Google shows comparison-shopping services in
response to a user’s query, the search results should show the most relevant
services first.
Google has
appealed the EU’s order. Experts predict that the dispute could continue for
years.
“The
Compartmentalization of a Search on the Web”
More and more frequently, Internet users do not engage in
general searches. Instead, they know exactly where to go to obtain product
information. When they want information on movies, for instance, they go to the
Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) rather than to Google. When they want
information on music, they go to iTunes. When they want to search for the
cheapest airfares, they go to Kayak or similar sites. When they want to find
the best rates on hotels, they go to sites such as hotels.com (Links to an external site.),
tripadvisor.com, and trivago.com. And when they are interested in buying a
product, they frequently go to Amazon or eBay. Amazon, in particular, has
fine-tuned its ability to generate advertising revenues through its
Amazon-sponsored links.
And, of
course, social media must be considered. More people are on social media sites
than ever before, particularly on their mobile devices. Users spend four times
more time on Facebook than they do on Google. These users often
“crowdsource”—that is, look for answers from Facebook friends rather than
search on Google. Facebook is also becoming increasingly competitive with
Google in the services it offers, including mobile payments and the Facebook
Messenger instant-messaging service.
Critical
Thinking
·
How does the increasing popularity
of specialized search engines weaken the EU’s argument that Google has harmed
consumers?
*****Be sure to give specific details and answer the question.
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