On April 15, 2015, the EU Commission sent a Statement of Objections to Google alleging that the company infringed EU antitrust rules. According to the Commission, Google abused its dominant position in the markets for general internet search services in the European Economic Area (EEA) by systematically favouring its own comparison shopping product in its general search results pages.
The Statement of Objections takes the preliminary view that in order to remedy the conduct, Google should treat its own comparison shopping service and those of rivals in the same way.
Google now has the opportunity to respond to the Commission’s allegations within ten weeks and to then seek a formal hearing.
Further details of the Commission’s Statement of Objections on comparison shopping can be found here.
The Commission has also formally opened a separate antitrust investigation on the mobile operating system Android. The investigation will focus on whether Google has entered into anti-competitive agreements or abused a possible dominant position in the field of operating systems, applications and services for smart mobile devices.
The EU Press release is available at http://europa.eu…
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