EU: EC analyzing whether Google Shopping remedies sufficient

The European Commission is investigating whether Google has done enough to resolve concerns that led to a €2.42 billion (at the time, US$2.7 billion) antitrust sanction in June, sending rival sites a list of questions to see if they benefited from the search giant’s remedies.

The online newspaper Politico acquired a questionnaire indicating that Margrethe Vestager, Europe’s competition boss, could be preparing for a new assault against Google, raising the prospect of further fines.

Google’s rivals argue that the response to a June verdict concerning its Google Shopping service fell far short of re-establishing fair competition in the EU.

To level the playing field, they claim that Vestager should use her powers to hit the company with fines for non-compliance that could potentially go up to €12 million (US$14.9 million) a day. Backdated to end-September, when Google was meant to comply, that could mean a total fine of up to €1.6 billion (US$2 billion).

The EC wants copies of agreements between price comparison websites and their five largest merchants in each country where they operate, as well as detailed information on pricing.

The regulator also wants to know how much feedback Google provides when rejecting bids to place ads, and how much data it shares about the performance of ads that are displayed.

Full Content: Politico

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