Google responds to EC’s antitrust charges

Google has responded to the European Commission’s (EC) accusations that it is anti-competitive in its shopping search results.

The EC sent a Statement of Objections to Google in April, claiming it had been taking advantage of its dominant market position for search services in the European Economic Area (EEA) by preferring its own shopping product in general search results pages.

The US technology giant did not respond at the time, however has now issued a 100-page response, which has been referred to in a recent blog post by Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel.

Within the blog post, Walker said: “Our response provides evidence and data to show why the SO’s concerns are unfounded. We use traffic analysis to rebut claims that our ad displays and specialized organic results harmed competition by preventing shopping aggregators from reaching consumers.”

The blog post concludes with: “We believe that the SO’s preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics. We look forward to discussing our response and supporting evidence with the Commission, in the interest of promoting user choice and open competition.”