In continuation of the investigation by the European Commission in 2010, the French shopping engine Twenga complaint against Google in the market for the online search for abuse of dominant position.
What was tipped just happen. The French shopping engine Twenga has announced Jan. 24 have filed a complaint against Google with the European Commission for abusing its dominant position.
Twenga states that the complaint “with a request for provisional measures, part of the investigation conducted by the services of the European Commission since November 2010.”
In the center of the dispute: the possible abuse of dominant position on the Google search market online.
End of 2010, the European authorities, following several complaints, including one from the web portal Ciao, acquired by Microsoft in 2008, launched an investigation into Google, especially in terms of vertical search and online advertising.
Brussels seeks to discover if in fact Google is knowingly forward its own services, like Google Shopping in the search results provided by Google Search, relegating lower in the ranking results from the competing sites.
“Discriminatory practices” according to Twenga, which “[...] systematically downgrade the sites of competing companies.”
The European Commission is also investigating the possible existence of exclusivity clauses imposed on advertising partners.
“The abusive practices of Google have increased considerably in 2011 with a willingness to eliminate all forms of competition in many sectors such as video search, hotel search, product search, comparison of ticket plane, despite the ongoing antitrust investigations in Europe and the United States, “says Bastien Duclaux, co-founder and CEO of Twenga, in a statement, AFP reported.
The online price comparison is here including the establishment of the new algorithm Panda Google Google Search, effective for several months.
This new version would have resulted, according to Twenga, promote recovery, the list of search results pages, Google Shopping, while the French shopping engine has lost visibility …
For its part, the European Commission continues to investigate and announce, certainly at the end of the first quarter, if it considers it appropriate to file a formal complaint against the Mountain View company for anti-competitive practice .
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