EU cracks down further on Google search abuse

EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia suggested yesterday that Google would have to make even more concessions to ensure it was not abusing its dominant position in the search engine market.

Google has already pledged to display prominent links to rival services and highlight supplementary features such as maps and price comparison it builds into search engine results.

But yesterday Almunia said he was “almost 100%” certain Google would have to offer more changes.

Google business strategy is of particular concern to the insurance industry.

Price comparison sites such as Moneysupermarket pay Google millions each year to have their products advertised on its search listings.

If Google aggressively promotes its own aggregator, Google Compare, then paying advertisers risk losing market share to the search giant.

One British price comparison site, Foundem, has already made complaints to the EU. Some companies have expressed their dismay that the concessions do not go far enough.

Changes will only apply to European versions of the search engine, rather than the widely-used Google.com.

If Google fails to comply with EU sanctions, it will face massive fines. In March, Microsoft was hit with a €561m fine over competition concerns.