Europe Hints at Impatience in Settling Google Case

The following is an excerpt from an article in:


The New York Times
Saturday, September 22, 2012

Europe Hints at Impatience in Settling Google Case

By JAMES KANTER

BRUSSELS — The European Union’s top antitrust regulator, Joaquín Almunia, said Friday that there were limits to how much longer his office would try to negotiate a settlement with Google over whether its Internet search engine favored the company’s own Web offerings to the detriment of competitors.

Mr. Almunia, in a news conference, also said he could still issue formal charges, known as a statement of objections, against Google if the talks did “not give us the results we are looking for, the elimination of our concerns in this market.”

Formal talks between Google and Mr. Almunia have been under way since July, when Google agreed to start seeking a deal. The company is trying to settle the matter without having to pay fines or have tight restrictions placed on its online search and its highly lucrative advertising service. Google has insisted that any adjustments it makes to its search results are intended to give the consumer a better experience, and not to preserve its own market share.

Without a settlement, Google would leave itself open to being fined as much as 10 percent of its annual worldwide revenue, which reached nearly $38 billion last year, and conform to any E.U. law it was found to violate before being allowed to appeal to the General Court of the European Union.

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