14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft indicated that its involvement in getting antitrust regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ocean to take a closer look at Google doesn’t contribute in the least to dismissing anti-monopoly concerns. Obviously, the Redmond company is no stranger to antitrust problems, having already faced severe penalties from authorities such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission. Dave Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel, noted that a single company’s dominance in an area of the market generates inherent antitrust concerns. When outlining the companies that filed complaints with the European Antitrust Commission against it, Google attempted to downplay their relevancy by pointing out that Microsoft was behind the legal actions.
Recently, news came “that the European Commission is investigating various aspects of Google’s conduct, including claims of retaliation, exclusivity and manipulation of search results to disadvantage rivals. The European Commission is likely to treat these cases quite seriously, given that Google’s share of search and search advertising is north of 95% in many European countries,” Heiner stated.
Although it wasn’t quick to react to Google’s allegations, Microsoft did manage to make its position public at the end of the past week. Heiner reminded the Mountain View-based search giant a simple truth of how antitrust authorities function, “Complaints in competition law cases usually come from competitors,” he stated. Microsoft itself has seen a plethora of anticompetitive complains, including from Google.
“This is the way that competition law agencies function: They look to competitors in the first instance to understand how particular markets operate, the practices of dominant firms and the competitive significance of those practices,” Heiner added. “(…)Ultimately what’s important is not who is complaining, but whether or not the challenged practices are anticompetitive.”
Multiple companies have filed complaints with the European Commission over Google’s practices, including Ciao (owned by Microsoft), Foundem, ejustice.fr, the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers and The Association of German Magazine Publishers. Heiner underlined that Microsoft had witnessed a constant increase in the volume of anti-Google complaints from publishers, advertisers, advertising agencies, all because of the dominance in search and online advertising. The Redmond company’s answer has been to direct companies unhappy with Google’s practices to antitrust regulators.
“As Google’s power has grown in recent years, we’ve increasingly heard complaints from a range of firms—large and small—about a wide variety of Google business practices. Some of the complaints just reflect aggressive business stances taken by Google. Some reflect the secrecy with which Google operates in many areas. Some appear to raise serious antitrust issues. As you might expect, many concerned companies have come to us and asked us for our reaction and even for advice. When their antitrust concerns appear to be substantial, we suggest that firms talk to the competition law agencies,” Heiner added.
Microsoft’s own concerns with Google’s practices involve the Mountain View-search giant allegedly locking in business partners and content while working to keep competitors out. Such moves undermine competition broadly, the software giant argued, but noted that the responsibility of deciding this fell with antitrust regulators.
“Google’s public response to this growing regulatory concern has been to point elsewhere—at Microsoft. Google is telling reporters that antitrust concerns about search are not real because some of the complaints come from one of its last remaining search competitors,” Heiner said.