EU Antitrust Charges Against Google? NP. Just Buy Europe

Google antitrust Googe Europe antitrust
Written by Ted Rall

The European Union is about to file antitrust charges against Google. Microsoft already had to pay more than $1B Euro for same. But changing business practices will be more expensive than the 6 billion Euro fine Google would face if found guilty. There is one clear alternative …

aNewDomain — The European Union is about to file antitrust charges against Google, The New York Times reports. If found guilty of abusing its market dominance — Google controls 90 percent of search in Europe — it may have to pay a six billion Euro fine. That’s equivalent to 10 percent of Google’s annual profits.

But the worst thing for Google isn’t the prospective fine, says aNewDomain legal analyst Tom Ewing. It’s that the firm will likely have to substantially change its business practices. The claim against Google is around complaints that Google favors it own products and services, non search-related, when someone in Europe uses Google to search. The complaints came from Microsoft, TripAdvisor, Yelp and others. The EU announcement this week culminates a five-year investigation, during which Google didn’t do enough to satisfy EU complaints.

That’s the whole point of anticompetition law and, likely, the EU antitrust charges against Europe. But here is a possible out for Google: Buy Europe!

Google antitrust Googe Europe antitrust

Cartoon: Ted Rall exclusively for aNewDomain

For aNewDomain, I’m Ted Rall.