European Comission looking into Google Job ADs service and calls Google a "player"

[AlTech]

If it feels like every week somewhere in the EU one of the EU's branches of government is suing, investigating, or fining Google then they probably are.

 

This week the European Comission is looking into Google Job ADs service for allegedly

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illegally favouring its own job ads service over rivals.

 

The Register (UK) reports

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Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager yesterday pointed out in a speech in Berlin the Commission had already fined the Choc Factory €1.49bn for abusing its dominance in search to profit its other divisions.

Vestager said: "And we're looking right now at whether the same thing may have happened with other parts of Google’s business – like the job search business known as Google for Jobs.”

The probe was not unexpected - two weeks ago several rival jobs sites wrote to the European Commission outlining their concerns, although some of the firms had admitted that agreeing to follow Google's requirements had improved traffic to their sites.

Vestager used the speech to point out the regulatory challenge presented by some technology companies, which effectively operate as platform providers while competing with other companies that use their platform – effectively making them both a player and referee. This conflict of interest leads to the temptation for platform providers to favour their own services – as Google was found to have done over comparison shopping services. Amazon is also facing a probe of this nature.

 

The EU really doesn't like Google and overall is trying to look into Platform holders abusing their positions as platforms whilst simultaneously also offering their own services.

 

I would not be surprised if the EU tries to restrict companies from operating this way in the future by introducing new laws.

 

Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/08/28/european_commission_confirms_google_jobs_finger/

[Suppersupport]

wait that is a crime? I of course am going to favor the crap I built over someone elses.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, will4623 said:

wait that is a crime? I of course am going to favor the crap I built over someone elses.

When you are a monopoly in Search for example and then use that monopoly to push your own other products and services above others then yes it is Anti-trust.

[Suppersupport]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

When you are a monopoly in Search for example and then use that monopoly to push your own other products and services above others then yes it is Anti-trust.

aaaaahhhhh so is it only a problem for monopolys?

[AlTech]

Just now, will4623 said:

aaaaahhhhh so is it only a problem for monopolys?

Well it's more a problem of just any company really abusing their position in the market to shove other products they own down peoples throats instead of letting people see other products.

[EarthWormJM2]

8 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

When you are a monopoly in Search

Yahoo? Bing? Duckduckgo? .... how are they a monopoly in Search? They are certainly the biggest... but that doesn't mean monopoly.

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, EarthWormJM2 said:

Yahoo? Bing? Duckduckgo? .... how are they a monopoly in Search? They are certainly the biggest... but that doesn't mean monopoly.

While there are other products in the search space, Google is the dominant player in the market with ~92% of the search market worldwide with the next biggest player, according to this site: https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share being Bing at about 2.6% and Yahoo at 1.8%. You don't have to have complete control to be considered a monopoly, eg: Microsoft in the 90's