Brussels and Mountain View make peace. The European Union Antitrust and Google have reached an agreement to close the dispute on internet searches. The American giant has agreed to face competition: from now on, when it promotes its specialist research services – for example on hotels or restaurants – it will also publish offers from three rival operators selected on the basis of concerted procedures. The EU specifies in a statement that the concerted measure will also apply to services that will be activated in the future by the search engine.
Joaquin Almunia, EU competition commissioner, expressed satisfaction with the benefits that the agreement will bring to consumers, underlining that the new procedure will not prevent Google from improving its services.
“My job is to protect competition in the interests of consumers, not of competitors – said Almunia -. Thanks to the solution we have found, both Google and its competitors will be encouraged to innovate and improve the offers”.
Furthermore, the agreement reached will allow Google to avoid running into an Antitrust procedure, which could have resulted in heavy penalties.
Before the definitive agreement, which arrived today, the American company had already given in to Brussels' requests on other fronts. Firstly, content providers have been granted the option to abandon Google's specialist services without penalties. Mountain View later agreed to remove the exclusivity clauses in its agreements with advertisers on ad search services. Finally, restrictions on using other platforms in search advertising campaigns will be lifted.
Compliance with these conditions will be monitored by an independent Commission.
