Google challenges EU regulator's anti-competitive claims

The Commission earlier this year issued the search giant with a statement of objections (SO) and claims the company has acted in breach of EU competition rules that prohibit businesses from abusing a dominant market position. It claimed Google promotes its Google Shopping service "more prominently" in its search index than rival services and that this may "artificially divert traffic from rival comparison shopping services and hinder their ability to compete on the market". 

Google has now submitted its official response to those preliminary conclusions and said they are "wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics".

"Our response provides evidence and data to show why the SO’s concerns are unfounded," Google senior vice president and general counsel Kent Walker said in a company blog. "We use traffic analysis to rebut claims that our ad displays and specialised organic results harmed competition by preventing shopping aggregators from reaching consumers."

"Economic data spanning more than a decade, an array of documents, and statements from complainants all confirm that product search is robustly competitive. And we show why the SO is incorrect in failing to consider the impact of major shopping services like Amazon and eBay, who are the largest players in this space," he said.

Walker said Google made changes to its search and advertising formats to "keep up with our competitors and better serve our users and advertisers" but that the new way of doing things is not anti-competitive.

"On the contrary, showing ads based on structured data provided by merchants demonstrably improves ad quality and makes it easier for consumers to find what they’re looking for," Walker said. "We show these ad groups where we’ve always shown ads -- to the right and at the top of organic results -- and we use specialised algorithms to maximize their relevance for users. Data from users and advertisers confirms they like these formats. That’s not 'favouring' -- that’s giving our customers and advertisers what they find most useful."

The European Commission is responsible for investigating competition-restricting agreements and abuse of dominant market position under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). The Commission will now consider Google's response before reaching a final decision in the case.

The Commission is currently conducting a separate investigation into Google in relation to the mobile market. It is looking into whether Google required or incentivised smartphone and tablet manufacturers to "exclusively pre-install Google’s own applications or services" onto their devices in a way which unfairly restricted competition.

Google has defended itself against the claims and said that the voluntary agreements it has put in place with smartphone and tablet manufacturers have benefited those businesses as well as consumers.