The European Union has launched an investigation following complaints from competing search service providers. They indicated that they are being disadvantaged in Google's overviews of free and sponsored search results in favor of Google's own services.
Google warned
Google has previously been investigated by the European Commission, commissioned by the French government. At the time, the French competition authority already warned Google about the dominant position the company holds in the country's online advertising market and that, due to this dominant position, Google is vulnerable to lawsuits.
The authority has concluded that the search engine holds no less than 90 percent of the French market. The authority states that Google is not abusing this position, but that it does bring potential problems with it. Companies purchasing specific search terms could experience difficulties transferring their advertisements to other search engines. It also emerges that companies enter into long-term contracts with Google, making it difficult for Google's competitors to make similar agreements.
New complaints
New complaints about Google have now been received from Germany. This is the reason why the European Commission has expanded its investigation into Google. A large group of publishers accuses Google of manipulating search results. They want Google to stop favoring their own services and have requested disclosure of the search algorithm.
According to the publishers, Google would also earn large sums by offering advertisements alongside articles searched for via Google News, without paying anything for this itself.
In addition to the publishers, there is another company that complained about Google. Euro-cities, a company that offers digital maps and related services, complained about the fact that Google offers the Google Maps service for free. Euro-cities says that it cannot compete fairly in this way.
Upon announcing the investigation, the committee emphasized that there is no evidence yet that Google has violated European rules.