European Union orders investigation against Google for Penalizing sites

This is the first  instance of anti-trust litigation European  Union against Google for breach of fair competition guidelines set under the Libson Treaty for “abuse of dominant position”. This move was triggered by complaints from three  online companies who have alleged that Google’s search algorithm is penalizing their  business.

 

 

Three companies  Foundem, Ciao and ejustice.fr have  demanded justice this time. Foundem is a price comparison site, Ciao an online shopping site and Enjustice is a litigation firm.  The first two companies have Microsoft  backing. While Foundem is funded by Microsoft Ciao was bought in 2008 and re-branded as Ciao Bing. Some people even conjecture that the French  law firm is helping the cause as well. So we have another Google Vs Microsoft stage set.telegraph  reports

 

In Foundem’s case  Google claims it has almost no original content and hence the lack of  visibility on SERPs. While in other cases there is no apparent reason for penalities.  Google normally penalizes spam sites and sites that attempt to hijack its search algorithm. But the prosecution claims they have been banned  despite being legitimate sites. Further they also claim that Google discreetly demotes  them because “It may not be coincidence that, collectively, these services present a  nascent competitive threat to Google’s share of online advertising revenues.”

 

Google defends itself saying “We’ve always worked hard to ensure that our success is earned the right  way, through technological  innovation and great products, rather than by locking in our users or advertisers or creating artificial barriers to entry.”saying “We’ve always worked hard to ensure that our success is earned the right  way, through technological  innovation and great products, rather than by locking in our users or advertisers or creating artificial barriers to entry.”