Revealed: how Google enlisted members of US Congress it bankrolled to fight $6bn EU antitrust case by Harry Davies.
From the post:
Google enlisted members of the US congress, whose election campaigns it had funded, to pressure the European Union to drop a €6bn antitrust case which threatens to decimate the US tech firm’s business in Europe.
The coordinated effort by senators and members of the House of Representatives, as well as by a congressional committee, formed part of a sophisticated, multimillion-pound lobbying drive in Brussels, which Google has significantly ramped up as it fends off challenges to its dominance in Europe.
An investigation by the Guardian into Google’s multifaceted lobbying campaign in Europe has uncovered fresh details of its activities and methods. Based on documents obtained under a freedom of information request and a series of interviews with EU officials, MEPs and Brussels lobbyists, the investigation has also found:
…
If you appreciate a tale of how a major corporation attempts to bully a sovereign government by buying up the support of another sovereign government, then this post by Harry Davies will be a great joy.
For the most part I’m not sympathetic to the EU’s complaints because it is attempting to create safe harbors for EU search companies to replicate what Google already offers. Why would anyone want more page-rank search engines is unknown. Been there, done that.
The EU could fund innovative research into the next-generation search technology and draw customers away from Google with better search results and the ad cash that goes with them.
Instead, the EU wants to hold Google back while inefficient and higher priced competitors bilk EU consumers. That hardly seems like a winning model for technological development.
Seat warmers in the EU will prattle on about privacy and other EU fictions in the actions against Goole.
Anyone who thinks removing search results from Google and only Google increases privacy is on par with Americans who fear terrorism. It’s some, as of yet to be diagnosed, mental disorder.
How people that ignorant reliably travel back and forth to work everyday is a tribute modern transportation systems.
Google should start doing rolling one-week Google blackouts across the EU. Paying penalties under SAAs and/or with lost revenue would be a small price to pay for rationality on the part of the EU.
The best defense against a monopoly is a better product than the monopoly, not the same product at a higher price from smaller EU vendors.
PS: You might want to notice the EU is trying to favor EU search vendors, not EU citizens, whatever they may claim to the contrary. Another commonality between governments.