Google has been granted an extension to formally respond to the European Commission’s antitrust charges, according to the Wall Street Journal. The new date is now August 31. Originally, the deadline was August 17, which is only a week away.
Currently, the the “Statement of Objections” (formal antitrust charges) only concerns comparison shopping, and doesn’t count other complaints about maps/local and other vertical areas.
Other claims that are included in the Statement of Objections:
- Google systematically positions and prominently displays its comparison shopping service in its general search results pages, irrespective of its merits.
- Google does not apply to its own comparison shopping service the system of penalties which it applies to other comparison shopping services on the basis of defined parameters, and which can lead to the lowering of the rank in which they appear in Google’s general search results pages.
- As a result of Google’s systematic favoring of its subsequent comparison shopping services “Google Product Search” and “Google Shopping”, both experienced higher rates of growth, to the detriment of rival comparison shopping services.
The reason for the extension is so Google can formally rebut the charges.
The surprise reorganization and formation of Alphabet, Inc. made by Google will not affect the procedures or investigation of the company, according to the European Commission.
Original Source by Greg Sterling