In an open letter to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, 41 price comparison sites from 21 European countries are calling on the Commission to take action against what they call “the ongoing abuse of power by Google”.
Little has changed
Two years ago, Vestager fined Google 2.42 billion euros for abuse of its dominant position. The American search giant was convicted because it had placed the search results of its own Google Shopping service above those services of its competitors (mainly price comparison sites).
According to the 41 signatories, the situation has barely changed since then. “Two years after the Shopping decision, effective competition in the national markets for comparison shopping has not been re-established”, the letter says: “Google continues to reserve the right to itself to provide a CSS [comparison shopping service, red.] directly on its search engine results pages”.
The signatories are not at all satisfied with the action that has been taken by Google in response to the Commission’s decision. “We call for the Commission to now formally address Google’s non-compliance. Google has had two years to present a workable mechanism.” The 41 companies also warn for job losses in the sector if nothing changes.
