The European Commission accuses Google of new abuse of dominant position – Le Parisien

L he European Commission on Thursday launched a new offensive against the American giant Google, accusing it again of abuse of dominant position.
Executive European Google sent two “statements of objections” –l’équivalent an indictment in the Brussels jargon – for anti-competitive practices: one concerning its advertising practices, the other his comparison service price. in the first case, the Commission “has informed Google, in a statement of objections, its preliminary view that the company has abused its dominant position by artificially limiting the ability of third-party websites , display contextual ads from competitors of Google “. in the second case, it” strengthened, in another statement of objections, its preliminary conclusion that Google has abused its dominant position by promoting systematically its price comparison service in its results pages. “
This is an additional charge to that already presented in April 2015 on the same subject.
” If our investigations conclude that the violation by Google of EU rules on anti-competitive practices, the Commission has the duty to act to protect European consumers and the exercise of? fair competition in the European markets, “said the European Commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager during a press conference in Brussels.
“Google and its parent Alphabet has 10 weeks to respond to the statement of objections,” said the EU executive. In a response e-mailed to AFP, Google simply commented “we believe that our innovations and product enhancements offered more choice to European consumers and boost competition We will examine the new parts of the Commission and bring a detailed answer in the coming weeks.”
– Three. investigations against Google –
with Thursday’s announcements, Google is now covered by the EU in three parallel investigations for abuse of dominant position
Indeed, on 20 April, the EU executive had sent. Google a statement of objections concerning the operating system and Android. Brussels accuses
are especially Google to require smartphone manufacturers that use its pre-install software or to favor certain services on their devices.
Wednesday, the European Commission said it had extended the deadline to US giant for it to meet the Android concerning accusations.
She now leaves him until September 7 to formulate its response, following a request from Google to have “a little more time to review the documents in his file. “
sending a Statement of objections does not prejudge the outcome? s investigation.
Wednesday, Ms. Vestager met in Brussels with US Secretary . Treasury Jacob Lew, who was touring in Europe, including the UK and Germany
This meeting comes at a tense between the United States and the European Commission: Washington has repeatedly prevailed against Brussels because of investigations by the EU on tax practices of multinationals, which would aim to “disproportionately” US firms.
much speculation in Brussels on a future decision of the Commissioner on Vestager tax agreements made by Apple with Ireland.
the US group is in the sights of Brussels, which accuses benefit from preferential tax treatment in Ireland.