The e-commerce company does not condemn Google's practices

Apr 27, 2015 12:27 GMT  ·  By
Google had previously revealed that competitors like eBay or Amazon had not been affected by it shopping service
   Google had previously revealed that competitors like eBay or Amazon had not been affected by it shopping service

Google has gained a powerful yet unexpected ally in the battle against the European Commission over antitrust charges. The e-commerce company has made it public that they are in a tight competition with Google regarding online shopping. Therefore, they do not endorse EU’s allegations.

The Financial Times reports that during an interview, John Donahoe, Ebay’s chief executive, made some declarations according to which he admits to the fact that Brussels does not have a very clear picture of the way online shopping takes place and that circumstances have changed since a while back.

Given that the five-year investigation that the European Union has led is just beginning to materialize in the form of a lawsuit with promising results for EU, Ebay’s CEO declarations are a bit surprising.

Google has repeatedly sustained its cause, claiming that it was the company’s products that encouraged competition, and not stifled it as the European regulators claim, and that customers have fully benefited from what they call an abuse of search dominance.

However, the European Commission thinks otherwise and accuses the tech company of putting a monopoly on search results and promoting its own services and products, to the detriment of other enterprises like Ebay.

Ebay’s president, on the other hand, sustains that his company represents a strong competitor for Google and does not disapprove of the multinational company’s ways.

Google denies the charges

In response to EU’s accusations, Google has even put forward a traffic chart indicating unique visitors and clearly showing that Google was far behind in online shopping while competitors like eBay or Amazon were occupying leading positions when it came to the most visited shopping sites from the United Kingdom.

It was also the case for Germany, where Google was far behind other smaller companies.

This is meant to serve as evidence to tear down the accusations of monopolistic practices that Google is currently facing and the support from a company which was expected to side with EU could really make a difference.

eBay's president also emphasized the fact that many changes that have taken place over time and that the search algorithm is completely different from what it was like five years back when the whole thing started.

Google has since turned Google Shopping into an advertising-based service, which means that the European Commission is in for a lengthy battle.