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[ICKE]

European parliament preparing to call for Google break-up

The European Parliament is preparing to call on regulators to consider splitting Internet search from other commercial services, according to a draft motion seen by Reuters, escalating a longstanding effort to curtail Google Inc's (GOOGL.O) dominance of the industry.

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry, and have sought ways to curb their power. A public call for a break-up would be the most far-reaching action proposed and a significant threat to Google's business.

Parliament lacks the authority to break up corporations, but a public motion would step up the pressure on the European Commission.

"It’s a strong expression of the fact that things are going to change,” said Gary Reback, a U.S. attorney who has filed complaints on behalf of companies against Google over fair search. “The parliament doesn’t bind the commission for sure, but they have to listen.”

Reuters

So this is going to be a pretty big deal in the near future. Google has an estimated 90 percent market share as far as search engines are considered. I say it is definitely time to...

Edit : Imagine a situation in the near future where Google continues to expand to various areas and they still have complete control over search engines. They can use one monopoly to build another and so on. Google is what most people are now using to search for various products, services and information. It is not healthy for our society and it's better to hit the breaks before it's too late.

In 2011, some smaller specialized search companies complained that Google moved them down in search results so that users wouldn't easily be able to find them. Microsoft also complained that Google had done things like make it hard for Bing to search Google's YouTube, and blocked advertisers from accessing data. The EU has been investigating on and off ever since.

The parliament doesn't have the power to order Google to split up on its own, but could pressure antitrust regulators, who have been investigating Google for more than three years now. The concern is that Google uses its search dominance to squeeze out search results that would guide people to potential competitors.

(Quoting cartesian who posted this on the second page)

 

[obin_gam]

But google is awesome. Why the hate?

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Don't be evil.

 

[stonesak]

Can someone send Y2Kev's comment on the Gaming forum about competition to the EU?

 

[Cagey]

Well, thankfully this move will help the public being victimized by monopolistic domineering of an industry...

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry, and have sought ways to curb their power.

Oh. Euros jelly. Nevermind.

 

[Lagamorph]

Yeah. Good luck with that.

 

[neogaffer1]

Can they even do that? Google is an American company, after all.

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry, and have sought ways to curb their power.

Oh fuck off.

 

[ICKE]

I definitely support aggressive measures against these companies, they avoid taxes via specific locations (Yes, I am looking at you Ireland), they have too much monopoly power and there is simply no reason to trust them.

Regulating them properly is something that benefits both European citizens, our own service providers and the market place as a whole. There is absolutely no reason to make excuses for these giant corporations just because they might offer a decent service, we need to look at the bigger picture in society and also protect regional interests.

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

If Google built search engine fair and square and marketed themselves into now a household name, why is it they have to be broken up? This is such bullshit. Yahoo, And Bing can step it up. It's not Google fault that literally they have upgraded their search engine ten folds leaving everyone in the dust. Bs.


Why not just ban Google search all together in EU then?

 

[Masquerader]

Meep. While this should happen soon (honestly, Google is becoming WAY too powerful to the extent that it isn't exactly going to be ethical), the reasoning is probably the worst. It screams "Hey, give us a chance!" Was that really the best that they could have came up with?

 

[Quixzlizx]

I definitely support aggressive measures against these companies, they avoid taxes via specific locations (Yes, I am looking at you Ireland), they have too much monopoly power and there is simply no reason to trust them.

Regulating them properly is something that benefits European companies and our citizens.

Maybe you should be regulating Ireland instead.

 

[SimleuqiR]

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry, and have sought ways to curb their power.

Eeeeh...create better services?

If Google built search engine fair and square and marketed themselves into now a household name, why is it they have to be broken up? This is such bullshit. Yahoo, And Bing can step it up. It's not Google fault that literally they have upgraded their search engine ten folds leaving everyone in the dust. Bs.

I read Yahoo will be Firefox's default search engine soon.

 

[Wiktor]

Good. One of the best things about EU is that it actually cares about citizens and small companies, instead of just throwing everything at big corporations' feet.

 

[Keio]

Good that the author of the article just makes it a dumb Euro vs US issue because that's the only point of this action amirite.

 

[Orbis Tabula]

I'm against this, but I think I'm pretty biased towards Google. I really like them as a company. Even though I don't approve of everything they do, I think they're doing a lot of cool things that are good for the world. But I'd definitely be open to arguments in favor of breaking them up. They're are huge and are practically synonymous with the internet.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

Europeans jealous of our American swagger

 

[gcubed]

whats it going to accomplish?

 

[tokkun]

Seems like this would affect Microsoft too, considering that they bundle Bing with Xbox and IE.

 

[ICKE]

Some of you guys should travel back to 1911 and make these same arguments to citizens just before the United State Supreme Court gives Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United State.

I do understand the geopolitical aspects, Americans will obviously be skeptical and less likely to support any restrictive measures when their companies might suffer. But this needs to be done, the well-being of small companies and European society should always be the priority for our legislative branch.

 

[LumpOfCole]

But that just leaves 'Go' and 'Ogle' and I don't want to do either of those things.

 

[la_briola]

The US did it with Standard Oil and many more I guess.

By 1911, with public outcry at a climax, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled, in Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, that Standard Oil must be dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split into 34 companies.

 

[Wiktor]

Seems like this would affect Microsoft too, considering that they bundle Bing with Xbox and IE.

Depends. Consoles might not be considered as primarly internet devices the way pcs or mobile are.

 

[Valnen]

What's to stop Google from just saying "No thanks."?

 

[jelly]

It's somewhat understandable when you consider they have 90% of market in search for example. That wealth of information gives Google considerable power, maybe even unbreakable. Newcomers can only do so much against that knowlegde and power, when Google can see it coming from trends long before anyone else, that could be considered unfair and a monoply that needs adjusting even with companies like Microsoft, Facebook etc. fighting in similar spaces.

 

[Sickboy007]

How about they start paying taxes? That would be a start.

 

[SimleuqiR]

Some of you guys should travel back to 1911 and make these same arguments to citizens just before the United State Supreme Court gives Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United State.

America did it with Standard Oil and many more I guess.

In these cases the public didn't have a "choice".

People have a choice to use other search engines. There is nothing stopping them.

 

[injurai]

The argument that they have too much control seems a bit backwards. The ISPs and top level DNS organizations are the true backbone of the internet. Europe has their own ISPs and local DNS. They share technologies with ARPA and IANNA.

If anything they should do what China has done with their internet. Breaking up Google is a different concern all together.

 

[LeleSocho]

European politicians have grown increasingly concerned about Google's and other American companies' command of the Internet industry

Hey EU how about you step your game up and help build a great Internet/Tech company?
Signed: Your fellow European citizen.

 

[perfectchaos007]

https://www.google.co.uk/



bam. google for brits

 

[LUFTRAUSER]

Does the European parliament even have the authority to break up an American corporation?

 

[Zoned]

Ain't happening.

Anyway, EU should get their shit done and do something technologically rather than blaming a US company. It's not our fault that we rule the internet space.

 

[Wiktor]

Hey EU how about you step your game up and help build a great Internet/Tech company?
Signed: Your fellow European citizen.

Why would they? They whole point is that a big tech company shouldn't also own the biggest search engine.

 

[RedShift]

Can they even do that? Google is an American company, after all..

What's to stop Google from just saying "No thanks."?

Google operates in Europe, and would presumably like to continue doing so.

It'd probably be a good thing. Their monopoly on search is unhealthy, and with everything that's come out since Snowden having all that info held by a US company is not great.

 

[Somnid]

The EU failed to curb Microsoft's power but Google sure did.

 

[Coriolanus]

Quite amazed by the quantity of people defending a near monopoly in this thread.

Europe's just gon do what the US should never have stopped doing.

 

[John Kowalski]

In these cases the public didn't have a "choice".

People have a choice to use other search engines. There is nothing stopping them.

I don't think the matter is that a lot of people use Google to, well, google, it's that the yuros think Google using it's web searching facet to fuel its other commercial services is unfairly skewing the market and giving Google too much control over the tubes.

 

[Guevara]

Good work again EU. As usual, in the U.S. we love our corporate masters too much to appreciate it.

 

[ICKE]

Why would they? They whole point is that a big tech company shouldn't also own the biggest search engine.

Exactly, I really have no idea why is it hard to comprehend why this sort of monopoly power is extremely problematic.

This is exactly the reason why I oppose proposed treaties like the Transatlantic Free Trade Area. American society is completely controlled by these giant corporations, even their elections are decided by donors and the citizens will make all kinds of excuses regardless how much market power they have or what their market practices are. Does not matter if Google is dominant in various services and also controls search engines that people use to pick and find products.

I feel like it is all a race to the bottom.

 

[Face it Tiger..]

Isn't gonna happen. unless you spit the EU division up. and even then they would be the closest thing to being spin-off but acting like they are still owned by the company..

 

[perfectchaos007]

Quite amazed by the quantity of people defending a near monopoly in this thread.

Europe's just gon do what the US should never have stopped doing.

yahoo, bing, and ask.com had their chances. google won as the better engine and rightfully so

 

[Slayven]

I don't get it, the search engine would be split off into another google company? Google isn't the only search engine and no one forces people to use them.

 

[Tacitus_]

I second your

 

[whatever77]

Just kick google out of the market like China did and save the antitrust lawyer fee.

 

[injurai]

Quite amazed by the quantity of people defending a near monopoly in this thread.

Europe's just gon do what the US should never have stopped doing.

Honestly copywrite laws and corporate write offs need to be fixed in the US before splitting up Google. I can only see greedy malicious paws driving the companies that are formed from the ashes of Google, and they will play their game and work together to corner the industry just as if they were a single entity.

Any the way to solve the problems that they are talking about should not involve splitting up Google.

 

[Wiktor]

yahoo, bing, and ask.com had their chances. google won as the better engine and rightfully so

And? We should care because? It will still be the best search engine if it's separated from the rest of the google. Heck, it's likely to be even better one.

 

[DopeyFish]

I'd say the biggest problem is the ad service tied in with the searching service

They are using one monopoly as leverage to build another.

 

[tokkun]

Google operates in Europe, and would presumably like to continue doing so.

It'd probably be a good thing. Their monopoly on search is unhealthy, and with everything that's come out since Snowden having all that info held by a US company is not great.

Would you feel more secure about your data if Microsoft and Yahoo had a bigger share of the market? What exactly is the alternative you are expecting?

 

[Valnen]

Google operates in Europe, and would presumably like to continue doing so.

Couldn't they just leave, though? That seems like it would be a better alternative than getting broken up.

 

[neogaffer1]

Quite amazed by the quantity of people defending a near monopoly in this thread.

Europe's just gon do what the US should never have stopped doing.

The reason they're defending it is because all of the competitors are shit. I'm not even just repeating what the internet has told me and saying that Bing is terrible; I use it instead of Google for the Bing Rewards stuff, and the amount of times I've had to copy-paste my search into Google because Bing wasn't good enough is incredibly high. Maybe if there was a search engine that was anywhere as close as Google's is, there wouldn't be so many people defending it.

Also, I don't understand what their point is with breaking search off of the rest of the company? People will keep using search and the rest of the products won't be able to use search? I don't see how that works, with Android having Google Now (is that an Android thing or a search thing?) and all these other products that have roots in search? I just don't understand how this whole thing will work.

 

[Yaboosh]

How does splitting off the search engine from the rest of Google affect the monopoly the search engine has?

Things don't work like that on the Internet.