Google today rejected European antitrust charges that it used its dominance over online search to promote its own product comparison website at the expense of rivals.
Google responds to ‘Shopping’ antitrust case has been posted here
FairSearch issued the following statement on the same day:
Statement by Thomas Vinje, counsel to FairSearch:
FairSearch has read with interest the claims by Mr. Walker.
We believe it is the European Commission that has the interests of consumers in mind, not a private company that makes money by using its market power to charge high prices to advertisers.
When consumers look at Google ads they do not get the best, most relevant results. Instead, they get results from advertisers willing to pay Google the most money.
Google would have you believe it has consumer interests at heart far more than does the European Commission. However, the anti-consumer actions by Google are so serious that the umbrella consumer group for Europe, BEUC, filed a complaint against it with the European Commission – the first anti-trust complaint they ever filed.
Contact: David Lawsky, david.lawsky@fipra.com, +32 472 91 47 48 or +322 613 2824
| NB: Getty Images complaint at the EC filed in May 2016 covers both shopping preferencing by Google and content scraping. CEPIC’s complaint filed in November 2013 only covers content scraping. |
