Microsoft files EU complaint against Google

Microsoft files EU complaint against Google. Google has consistently denied dominating the online search market and has contested individual allegations made against it. It said its behaviour was driven by the desire to give users of its search facilities the best results.

 

Microsoft has filed a formal complaint with European antitrust regulators about Google’s online search dominance in the region.

 

Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said the software company had become “concerned by a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative”.

He added: “We’ve therefore decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market.”

In filing its complaint, Microsoft has joined its rivals in voicing their concerns with the European Union, which is investigating whether Google has violated the region’s antitrust laws and uses its dominance of web search to thwart competition.

“Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of European consumers,” Mr Smith wrote in the blog post.

While Microsoft and partner Yahoo have about a quarter of the US search market and Google the rest, Google has almost 95 per cent of the market in Europe, according to Mr Smith, who cited data from regulators.

Google has consistently denied dominating the online search market and has contested individual allegations made against it. It said its behaviour was driven by the desire to give users of its search facilities the best results.

Microsoft files EU complaint against Google

Source : www.ft.com