E.U. looks into Google’s ranking system
The European Union has launched a preliminary inquiry into Google's search ranking system. Google's European competitors have egged the E.U. onto investigating the practices of the domineering search engine. Christopher Werth reports.
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Bill Radke: European regulators famously went after Microsoft in years past. Now, Google says the E.U. has launched a preliminary inquiry into its search ranking system. Christopher Werth has that from London.
Christopher Werth: It may be hard to believe, but Google dominates European search advertising even more than in the U.S. And so competitors large and small have asked the E.U. to hold a magnifying glass to the way the company runs its search engine and sells online ad space.
One of those competitors is named Ciao, which just so happens to be owned by Microsoft.
Thomas Vinje is a lawyer with Clifford Chance. He says Microsoft knows all about E.U. antitrust complaints:
Thomas Vinje: Microsoft is locked in a great battle for control over the future of computing, primarily with Google. And competition cases in Brussels have proved to be fertile ground for pursuing such great battles.
Google responded in a blog post, arguing its practices are “fair and square.” And Vinje says Google could face similar antitrust scrutiny in the U.S.
In London, I’m Christopher Werth for Marketplace.