Google under investigation

European Commission launches probe into Google’s search business.

The European Commission today announced that it is opening an antitrust investigation into allegations that Google has abused its dominant position in the online search market.

The investigation follows complaints by search providers about unfavourable treatment of their services in Google’s unpaid and sponsored search results as well as an alleged preferential placement of Google’s own services.

Google’s internet search engine provides for two types of results: some are unpaid, and others – third-party advertisements shown at the top and at the right-hand side of Google’s search results page – are paid search results or sponsored links.

The Commission said it will investigate whether Google has abused its dominant market position in what are known as vertical search services. It is alleged to lower the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services that specialise in providing content, such as price comparisons. It will also investigate whether Google gave preferential placement to the results of its own vertical search services in order to shut out competing services.

In addition, the Commission will examine allegations that Google lowered the ‘quality score’ for sponsored links of competing vertical search services. The quality score influences the likelihood of an advertisement being displayed by Google and its ranking.

The Commission’s probe will also focus on allegations that Google imposes exclusivity obligations on advertising partners, preventing them from placing certain types of competing ads on their websites, as well as on computer and software vendors. The alleged aim is to shut out competing search tools.

Other areas of investigation are suspected restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign data to competing online advertising platforms.