EU lawmakers consider urging Google to be split up
Google is facing the scrutiny of European antitrust regulators.
The European Union’s parliament is considering a proposal that pushes for Google’s dominant search engine business to be split from its other “commercial services,” according to media reports.
European lawmakers have long tussled with Google Inc., arguing that the Mountain View, Calif., company uses its powerful market share to promote its own services within search results over those of rivals.
A draft of the proposal — a finalized version of which is scheduled to be voted on next week — calls on the EU’s executive arm to “consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services” of Google, according to Bloomberg.
Andreas Schwab, a German lawmaker who supports the proposal, told the Financial Times that “unbundling cannot be excluded.”
The draft says Google “immediately and unequivocally” must be kept from hurting competitors and says that search results should be what’s best for consumers, “rather than best for Google,” Bloomberg reported.
The European Commission has been weighing whether to open an antitrust investigation into Google. The parliament cannot order a break-up, but it could push the commission to do so.
Google was dealt a recent loss overseas when the European Court of Justice required Google to create a forget-me feature on the search engine. The ruling allowed people to ask that certain links about them be removed from search results.
Google declined to comment.
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