Google's European antitrust fight Second time around

Google's European antitrust fight

Second time around

By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: October 03, 2013

Oct 1st 2013, 9:47 by P.L. | BRUSSELS
JOAQUÍN ALMUNIA, the European Union's competition commissioner, is confident that he can still reach a settlement with Google. Mr Almunia has been carrying out an investigation into the way the online giant runs its search engine since November 2010. In April he announced a tentative agreement with the company, in which Google promised various changes to the way it presents the search results of its own services and those of rivals and uses content belonging to publishers and other third parties. Those were roundly slammed by Google's rivals, and in July Mr Almunia asked the company to have another go. On October 1st, in a meeting in Brussels organised by two members of the European Parliament to debate the Google case, he said that the firm had made new proposals that contained "significant improvements". Negotiations had gone on until the day before. The new offer will be finalised in the next few weeks, and he will seek reaction to this too. The commissioner hopes to announce a settlement in the spring. "We have reached a key moment in this case," he said.
Mr Almunia said he would not go into detail about the new proposals, but he still gave some hints. In the first lot, Google's opponents complained, links to rival specialised services were not prominent enough. That, Mr Almunia thinks, has been fixed: they will get more space, and be allowed to put their logos next to the link. Google's critics also disliked the auction mechanism proposed for allocating space to rivals in certain categories of search. The new proposal allows auctions for individual queries, which Mr Almunia thinks will help smaller operators.
At the meeting convened by the MEPs, which was still going on at the time of writing, Google's critics, from rival search services, consumer groups and publishers, were well represented. Google, however, had declined an invitation to attend. Speakers were well prepared to criticise Google's first set of proposals, but (understandably) not for Mr Almunia's news. They will want a close look at the new suggestions—a "market test" at least as rigorous as the one that poked holes in the first set.
Mr Almunia still has the option, if a settlement cannot be reached, of prohibiting some practices and imposing fines on Google. But he still thinks a settlement is the right option. He says that "we can use [legally binding commitments] to solve problems more quickly and concretely". Emphasising the need for speed makes sense in such a fast-moving market. Yet it sounds a little odd in a case that, should a settlement be announced in the spring, will have lasted three and a half years.

歐盟競爭委員阿慕尼亞（Joaquín Almunia）仍舊相信，他可以與谷歌達成和解。阿慕尼亞自2010年11月開始，即著手調查谷歌搜尋引擎的運作方式；今年4月，他公佈了試驗性的解決 方案，谷歌承諾改變其搜尋結果呈現方式，範圍包括自身與對手的服務，以及出版商等第三方所擁有的內容。
谷歌的競爭對手強烈抨擊這些變動。7月時，阿慕尼亞要求谷歌再次提出新的解決方案。10月1日，在兩名歐盟議會成員召集的谷歌案討論 會上，阿慕尼亞指出，谷歌已經提出了「大幅改善」的新提案，協商一直到前一天才完結。新提案將於接下來幾周確定，阿慕尼亞也會探尋各方反應；他希望能在明 年春季宣佈達成和解。
阿慕尼亞表示不會詳述新提案，但還是給了一些線索。其一，谷歌的對手認為，競爭對手專業服務的連結不夠明顯。阿慕尼亞 相信這個問題已經解決了：競爭對手會有更大的空間，還能將商標放在連結旁邊。先前的提案中，競爭者可以競標特定搜尋類別的空間，批評者不喜歡此做法；新提 案將允許競標個別搜尋，阿慕尼亞認為這可以幫助規模較小的企業。
這場由歐盟議員召集的會議中，競爭搜尋引擎、消費者團體、出版商等谷歌批評者皆派出了代表，但谷歌拒絕了邀請。發言者對谷歌前一次的提案做足了準備，但也沒有批評阿慕尼亞帶來的新消息；它們應該會想仔細檢視新提案，並進行至少可以與前一次提案相當的「市場測試」。
要 是無法達成和解，阿慕尼亞還是可以禁止部分谷歌業務並實施罰款，但他仍舊認為和解才是正確的作法；他說，我們可以利用具法律效力的承諾，更快、更徹底地解 決問題。在如此快速變化的產業之中，強調速度相當合理，但對於一宗持續了三年半（如果能在明年春天和解）的案子來說，那聽起來實在有點怪。（黃維德譯）