Google Critics From US, UK Demand Prompt Antitrust Enforcement

A group of 165 companies and industry associations — from the U.S. and U.K as well as 21 European Union (EU) countries — sent a letter to antitrust regulators asking that they throw the book at Google as fast as possible, according to a Reuters statement on Thursday (Nov. 12).

The joint letter to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager was from 135 companies offering online services plus 30 industry associations. The group criticized Google for favoring its own services, including preferential search placement, and asked Vestager for fast action.

The group said it is the biggest collaboration to write to EU antitrust regulators urging a fast response. The letter was seen by Reuters, and signers included Yelp, Expedia, Trivago, Kelkoo, Stepstone and Foundem.

“While we compete amongst ourselves for the best consumer experience, there is one common competitor that does not compete fairly — Google,” the letter said, according to Reuters.

“Google gained unjustified advantages through preferentially treating its own services within its general search results pages by displaying various forms of grouped specialized search results (so-called OneBoxes),” it added.

Google denies the assertions and has said that its users have freedom to choose any search engine they want.

“People expect Google to give them the most relevant, high quality search results that they can trust,” a Google representative told Reuters. “They do not expect us to preference specific companies or commercial rivals over others, or to stop launching helpful services which create more choice and competition for Europeans.”

The Silicon Valley search giant owned by Alphabet has been hit with numerous fines adding up to $9.7 billion since 2017 for stifling competition in favor of its own shopping comparison service and advertising business, in addition to its Android operating system for smartphones.

Google is facing numerous antitrust lawsuits, the latest being a 57-page complaint filed in Washington, D.C. Oct. 20 by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and 11 state attorneys general.