“The administrative changes in Brussels – a new Parliament and soon a new European Commission – don’t augur well for Google”, writes Het Financieele Dagblad. The new team under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker is “under pressure” to handle the American internet giant more aggressively than the outgoing Commission. Günther Oettinger, the new Commissioner-elect for digital economy, warned MEPs in a hearing last week that any settlement with Google over its long-running antitrust case with the EU could help the American technology company “cement its strength in the market rather than diluting it”. Margrethe Vestager, the incoming commissioner, for Competition, said in her hearing “a next step” against Google is bound to come.
According to the Dutch financial newspaper, Google owns 90 per cent of the European market of web search engines. Several technology enterprises, united in the anti-Google club Fairsearch, complain Google is abusing its position to “tamper with the search results”.
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