In a joint letter, these companies stated that, as the world’s most popular Internet search engine, Google has not yet complied with a 2017 ruling of the European Commission that it will stop favoring its own shopping comparison service, Google Shopping.
Editor’s note: This article comes from Tencent Technology .
According to foreign media reports, 41 European parity shopping service companies today urged EU antitrust regulators to take action against Google because of alleged contempt of a 2017 ruling by the European Commission. They said it would endanger their survival.
This is the first time ever that so many companies have joined forces to call on EU antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager to take further action against Google. In a joint letter to Vistag, these companies stated that, as the world’s most popular Internet search engine, Google has not yet complied with a 2017 European Commission ruling that it would stop favoring its own shopping comparison service, Google Shopping. At the time, Google was also fined 2.4 billion euros (about $ 2.7 billion).
The signers of this joint letter came from 21 EU countries, including Idealo, Europe ’s second largest shopping parity service, Ceeno in Poland, Kelkoo in the UK, and Foundem and Heureka in the Czech Republic. These companies stated in the joint letter: “We contacted you (Vestag) because companies like us were threatened by Google and they did not comply with previous EU rulings.”
These companies also said that the fact that Google ’s proposal to allow competitors to bid for ad space at the top of search pages did not increase their website traffic. “For this reason, more and more competitors have been or will be forced out of the market by Google.”
Google executive Oliver Bethell said earlier this week at the Informa conference that about 600 companies are currently participating in the auction of search page ad space and using it as an auction to promote competition evidence.
But a Google competitor today quoted a study by Grant Thornton saying: “Because Google is searchingGoogle ’s ranking and display of its shopping department is better than its competitors, so Google ’s abuse never ends. “The research shows that the prices displayed by Google Shopping Services are higher than those of competitors’ sites.
Thomas Hoppner, an attorney at Idealo, Europe’s second-largest shopping parity service, said most signatories had expressed their dissatisfaction for the first time. Hopner said that the joint letter showed that some real shopping comparison services formed a united front and unanimously opposed Google’s unfair competition.
Earlier this month, EU Antitrust Commissioner Weistig also expressed concerns about Google ’s competitors lacking significant traffic. (Tencent Technology Review / Breeze)