EU Deepens Google Antitrust Investigation
August 21 2015 - 3:30PM
Dow Jones News
BRUSSELS—The European Union is stepping up its probe into
allegations that Google abuses its dominance in advertising
contracts with website operators and copies content from rival
websites, in a further sign that the U.S. search giant's travails
with Europe's antitrust regulator are far from over.
The European Commission, the bloc's competition watchdog, has
sent out questionnaires to companies requesting more detailed
information into Google's business practices in those areas,
according to two documents seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The EU has previously flagged its concerns about the practices
cited in the questionnaires, which follow a formal complaint in
April that charged the company with skewing results to favor its
comparison-shopping services.
In one of the questionnaires inquiring about "exclusivity
obligations"—whether Google prevents or obstructs website operators
from placing ads on their websites that compete with Google's
advertising business—the commission asks companies to update
responses they made about the issue in 2010 and to provide a copy
of all their advertising agreements with Google over the last four
years.
A separate questionnaire, investigating the allegations that
Google copies or "scrapes" content from rival sites, asks companies
to provide more information about whether Google takes content,
such as images, from the companies and uses it in its own online
services.
News Corp, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, has filed a
formal complaint with the commission regarding Google competition
practices.
Google and the European Commission weren't immediately available
for comment.
Google has until Aug. 31 to respond to the formal charges in the
shopping case, after the commission twice extended the deadline.
The commission is also investigating the company's conduct with its
Android mobile-operating system. The EU's charges could lead to
billions of euros in fines and requirements for the company to
change its business practices.
In April, when antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager filed
the shopping charges against Google, she also said she would
continue to investigate concerns over other Google practices. These
included allegations that it "scrapes" rivals' web content, that it
requires exclusive relationships with Web publishers and that it
restricts advertisers' ability to use competing advertising
platforms.
The commission's request for updated information about the
exclusivity issue suggests that the commission found cause for
deeper concern in the previous submissions from complainants and
could now be gathering further evidence to file formal charges that
would expand on the formal complaint filed in April.
"It is to be welcomed that the commission is having a closer
look at the scraping and the exclusivity issues," said Thomas Hö
ppner, an attorney at law firm Olswang, which represents Google
complainants.
Web publishers "bear all the costs for creating the content
while Google reaps the commercial benefits by merely copying and
reusing the content in its own service," he added.
In the request for information about exclusivity, the commission
also asks the companies to outline any clauses in those agreements
that have prevented them from displaying competing search ads and
why the company decided to accept such clauses in their agreement
with Google.
"Has Google ever conditioned, in writing or in oral discussion,
the continuation of its agreements or the terms of its business
relationship with you to your displaying only Google search ads on
your web pages?" one of the forms asks.
In a questionnaire about scraping of images, companies are asked
about whether they can exert control over the use of their images
on Google Images "without the need to entirely prohibit their
use."
Google this month announced it would separate its search and
advertising business from its other ventures and manage them under
the holding company Alphabet Inc. The commission has said the
changes wouldn't affect its antitrust investigations into the
company.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 21, 2015 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)
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