Google Inc (GOOGL) Is on EU Competition Commission’s Radar Again

Earlier this year Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) avoided a fine, related to the way competitors’ links are displayed in the search engine results, of about $5 billion. However, many companies remained unsatisfied by the outcome of the investigation and complaints have been submitted to the tech giant’s address. CNBC said that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) still has to answer some questions to EU competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia.

The previous three-year investigation, which started in November 2010, was mostly related to the fact that the search engine did not properly display competitors’ results. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) agreed on a set of rules, given by the Commission, that it will comply to. It will also eliminate restrictions that keep from moving their material on rival platforms like Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) or Bing. However, as Google is currently leading the market for smartphone operating systems, there will be further questions to answer.

“[…] We are working on Android with some problems, not yet a formal investigation but quite an advance knowledge about the problems. We can work in all the areas of Google, where some people are sending us arguments, in some cases formal complaints, talking about possible abuses of dominance […],” said Joaquín Almunia.

It is unclear what exactly is expected from the IT titan and the complaints haven’t been made public, but Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has no other choice than to cooperate with the commissioners. So far, it proved very capable in avoiding major conflicts with the regulators, not only in the EU, but also across the Atlantic, where the company faced pressure from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to change its search practices.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will be under careful examination for the time being, but this doesn’t imply that it engages in malpractices, it may be just a form of control imposed on a company that is too big to go wrong. Hopefully, this will not be the case and other small thriving firms will not suffer from improper competition, which ultimately will lead to a healthy innovation cycle in the market.

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