EU's Google Antitrust Probe Keeps Going (and Going)

(News)
The European Commission's new competition chief has no intention of ending the Google antitrust fight anytime soon.
Less than two weeks into the job, Margrethe Vestager announced on Tuesday that she will take her time to investigate unease over Google's search-related business practices.
"To decide how to take our investigations forward, I need to know what those most directly affected by the practices in question have to say," Vestager said in a statement. "I will therefore need some time to decide on the next steps."
The Danish economy minister, who took over for Joaquín Almunia on Nov. 1, plans to put data privacy and media pluralism issues on the backburner, and instead focus on competition problems.
Vestager said she has been following the investigations closely, even before her appointment as Commissioner for Competition; the probes, she said, have raised "very important questions" about access to vital markets.


"I have to be sure that we have all the facts up to date to get it right," she said. "In short, the issues at stake in our investigations have a big potential impact on many players, they are multifaceted and complex."
The four-year battle launched in late 2010, when the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Google over allegations that the company abused its dominant position in online search.
Earlier this year, the agencies announced a deal whereby Google would feature links to rival services in its results, as well as make it easier for advertisers and publishers to work with competing firms. But Almunia re-opened the case in September, after a number of Google rivals pushed back and requested further concessions.
Among the criticism was a letter from News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, who accused Google of being "a platform for piracy and the spread of malicious networks."
The EU is also separately probing Google's Android operating system, but as of September, had made no decisions whether to open a formal investigation