Considering how picky they are, it's no surprise they were left out

Feb 5, 2014 15:19 GMT  ·  By

Google has finally reached a deal with the European Commission in the antitrust case and, as expected, the company’s competitors aren’t pleased at all.

The displeasure comes from the fact that they weren’t consulted this time around and that the European Commission chose to review the proposal on its own.

“A settlement without third party review is a massive failure. Complaints and others must see Google’s proposed commitments, not just the Commission’s analysis of why they will work. Hard data from market tests proved that the previous settlement would not work – we need time and opportunity to ensure full technical assessment of how effective the proposed remedies would be,” noted David Wood, ICOMP general counsel, TechCrunch reports.

Other voices are displeased that the results promised by Google will be displayed on the right side of the search results page, which isn’t exactly the go-to place for users.

Joaquin Almunia, the commissioner in charge of the case, believes that Google’s proposal will address the concerns.

It’s fairly easy to see why the European Commission chose, after more than three years, to go over the proposal without the prying eyes of Google’s competitors, since they’re obviously never going to be happy with any type of concession from Google.

“Without a third party review, Almunia risks having the wool pulled over his eyes by Google. Having initially welcomed earlier proposals, effective market tests demonstrated their fatal flaws and the commission rightly rejected them. Why has Almunia chosen to ignore the expert advice of the market on this occasion?” Wood further said.

He also doesn’t believe Google will keep up its part of the deal, which is why he implores Almunia, in the name of ICOMP, to allow a third-party review of the submission, which is “the very least” they can do.