According to Google, the company actually took measures designed to prevent the lengthy antitrust investigation that is currently being conducted by the European Competition Commission. Interestingly, despite the vast amount of power and influence of Google, this approach was a failure.
Recently, the head of competition and economic policy for Google’s European, Middle Eastern and African departments Adam Cohen spoke at a meeting of the Internal Market sub-committee of the European Union. In his speech, Cohen said that the technology company originally tried to prevent an extended regulatory process of investigation. However, Cohen did not go into detail about the exact measures taken by Google.
Cohen said, “We did take that approach with the European Commission in 2012, we made a set of voluntary measures designed to address the core areas of this case that would speed things along, and that was unsuccessful.”
Currently, the European Competition Commission is investigating Google on multiple fronts. The investigation that has received the largest amount of attention regards accusations that Google has abused its dominant position in the search engine market in order to systematically favor its own products. Basically, Google has allegedly been promoting its own products and services over the offerings of others.
However, Cohen has said that the public scrutiny isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it shows that the massive company is worth discussing.
Cohen said, “When regulators stop talking about you it might be a sign that you are less successful. Big successful companies are open to scrutiny and should let the facts speak for themselves.”
Unsurprisingly, legal representatives for Google have said that there is no basis for the claims made by the European Competition Commission. Lawyers for Google wrote, “The theory on which the preliminary conclusions rest is so ambiguous that the Commission itself concluded three times that the concern had been resolved.”
For now, the investigation by the European Union is still ongoing.
Stay Connected
