EU: Google responds to antitrust charges

The European Commission filed antitrust charges against Google Wednesday, alleging that the company “abused its dominant position” in the Internet search market. The tech giant hit back, however, saying it will respond to the charges in the coming weeks.

In what it called a Statement of Objections, the European Union’s executive arm said Google had “systematically” favored its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages.Responding to the commission’s announcement, Google said in blog post that it “strongly” disagreed with the EU’s statement of objections and would make its case in the coming weeks.

“While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways — and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark,” Google said.

“If you look at shopping — an area where we have seen a lot of complaints and where we understand the European Commission will focus its Statement of Objections — it’s clear that (a) there’s a ton of competition (including from Amazon and eBay, two of the biggest shopping sites in the world) and (b) Google’s shopping results have not the harmed the competition,” it added.

Google faces fines of as much as $6.6 billion if antitrust charges are proven, and could be forced to reshape its business in Europe.

Full Content: Tech Crunch

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