By Frances Robinson
If you're reading this in Europe, have a little think about what search engine you last used? Was it Google? Yes, it was, wasn't it (well, for at least 80% of you, according to the French online privacy watchdog CNIL). Back in December 2010, the European Union's antitrust watchdog began investigating the search giant after complaints from smaller peers; now the consumer lobby is weighing in too.
BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation, outlines its concerns in a letter to the EU's antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia, seen by Real Time Brussels.
"We are concerned that the dominant search engine, Google, may have abused its position in the search market to direct users to its own services and secondly to reduce the visibility of competing websites and services… Given its role as gatekeeper to the internet, Google is in a unique position to restrict access to its competitors and direct traffic to its own services," the letter says.
The issue isn't a simple one, or likely to be resolved quickly. There's a similar probe underway in the U.S. The complainants in the EU case, and other companies who believe "Google is abusing its search monopoly to thwart competition," including restaurant-selection behemoth Tripadvisor and proprietor of search rival Bing, Microsoft, have set up Fairsearch.org, which says "We believe policymakers must act now to protect competition, transparency and innovation in online search."
It hinges on the fact that rival search engines often only come up in the third page of Google's results, for example when looking for maps, while the company's own map service gets top-of-the-page prime real estate.
Now it's the turn of BEUC to join the fray.
"We expect the European Commission to take a strong stance and protect the principle of search neutrality according to which search results should be impartial and based solely on their relevance to consumers' queries. It is important that the European Commission exercises its powers to sanction dominant companies who abuse their position to the detriment of consumer welfare," it says.
A Google spokesman declined to comment on the letter… Watch this space.
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