The
takeover has already been cleared by US consumer regulator the
Federal Trade Commission but awaits approval from the European
Commission, which is responsible for competition regulation in
Europe. Though Google said that the Parliamentary hearing made an
association between privacy and competition, the Commission itself
has not yet mentioned such a link.
A European Parliament hearing into privacy on the internet
discussed the proposed takeover. Google's global privacy counsel
Peter Fleischer attacked the blurring of boundaries between
competition law and privacy safeguards.
"People [are] trying to take a privacy case and shoehorn it into
a competition law review," he said, according to news agency
Reuters. "I can understand that people continue to peddle this
theory in Europe after having lost in the United States."
Dutch MEP Sophie in t'Veld, who was behind the hearing, said
that the acquisition of information was what made companies such as
Google powerful, and what made privacy issues a factor in a
competition inquiry.
"The reason you want to have the data is because it gives you a
competitive advantage. It is business. I don't think they can be
completely disconnected. And we should discuss that side of things
too," she said, according to Reuters. "Having that much information
is market power."
The executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Centre (EPIC), a lobby group, tied privacy to the merger. He said
that the power that will be amassed by the combined company
"underscore[s] the need to bring data protection into account when
the responsible authorities review the merger".
The DoubleClick acquisition will be assessed by EU competition
authorities over fears that it could hand Google too much power in
the market for internet advertising. Google is the biggest company
in the pay-per-click ad market, while DoubleClick is dominant in
the serving of display ads.
Though the deal is still being investigated by the European
Commission it is unusual for the Commission to block FTC-approved
deals involving only American companies.
