Back in June, the EU fined Google $2.7 billion by the EU for “favoring its own content” in shopping search results. Reportedly, Google is appealing the decision.
But in the meantime, Google has been compelled to propose an alternative presentation of search results to remedy and respond to the EU decision. Google, according to Reuters, “has offered to display rival shopping comparison sites via an auction.”
Although it doesn’t seem that there are any specific details of this proposal, this approach is conceptually similar to the “rival links”proposal that was proposed and failed to settle the antitrust dispute before the formal Statement of Objections (antitrust case) was filed in 2015.
According to Reuters, the proposal would allow alternative providers of shopping content “to bid for any spot in its shopping section known as Product Listing Ads . . . [and Google would also] set a floor price with its own bids minus operating costs.”
Seeings how the “rival links” proposal was met with objections from both European shopping sites and Google competitors, it isn’t very likely that this Google proposal will go very far.