European Parliament may call for breakup of Google

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,253   +192
Staff member

european parliament google

The European Parliament is said to be preparing a proposal that would call for Google to split its search engine division from the rest of its business in Europe in an effort to curb the company’s dominance over the search engine market in the region.

The proposal specifically refers to a potential split as “unbundling.”

The brazen legislation, expected to be introduced next week, doesn’t specifically mention Google by name. But considering the Mountain View-based company is the dominant search provider in Europe with roughly a 90 percent share of the market, it’s most certainly who they are referencing.

european parliament google

Andreas Schwab, a German member of Europe’s parliament who helped draft the proposal, said that overly dominant market positions have never been good for the market. Schwab insisted that they’re simply highlighting the fact that there are tools the commission can use.

This past February, Google and the European Union reached an agreement to settle an antitrust probe dating back to 2010. The search giant said it would change how competitors’ links are displayed on their site for the next five years (the alternative would have seen the European Union slap Google with a fine of up to $5 billion).

The matter appeared settled until just a couple of months ago when competitors including Microsoft and others provided new arguments in the case. The deal has since been rejected.

It’s worth pointing out that Europe’s parliament doesn’t have the power to enforce such a breakup. What it could do, however, is put additional pressure on the European Commission to take action against Google.

Permalink to story.

 
This is an unfair bash towards google. Unlike the Microsoft/Internet Explorer case where when you install Windows it comes preloaded with Internet Explorer. Google isn't the preloaded search engine. You would have to go and manually download google chrome or switch your default search engine from BING to google. The whole legislation is unfounded
 
I say that if this goes through, Google steps out of the EU market to see what happens. I've heard a lot of European Bigwigs doing extremely stupid things (I think there was one where they banned high powered vacuums......)
I would love to see them squirm...
 
But even the Microsoft thing IE explorer was BS. Microsoft make windows and have an internet browser installed so you can start to browse. Why would they install a third party browser ? They were all better sure, but its Microsofts own brand browser so therefore trusted by the company to be on their own OS. Sorry but it made sense.
And the argument that IE shouldn't be there was lame, cause if you knew about computers youd go download a different browser, if you were too old or too naive you wouldn't care anyway. The whole thing was absurd.
As is this new heap of crap.
If google have a search engine, and their searches are unfair, or biased, whatever, then my god open another search engine up. If people know their stuff they would, if they are too naive then they won't care.
How can you sue someone for $5 billion for being top dog ? Do they not pay tax ? They probably avoid tax by amazing loopholes, go plug them up and get your extra income. But this whole thing does not make sense.
The argument is made by dumb asses for dumb asses.
 
"overly dominant market positions have never been good for the market."

UNLESS it's an european company.

EU sucks.
 
I say that if this goes through, Google steps out of the EU market to see what happens. I've heard a lot of European Bigwigs doing extremely stupid things (I think there was one where they banned high powered vacuums......)
I would love to see them squirm...

Trust me, the EU had banned / "regulated" much more dumb stuff than that. From banning standard lightbulbs to regulating the proper CURVATURE OF A BANANA that can be sold in EU! Fortunately, the second regulation was recently removed (it WAS real), but yeah, they just seem to make their laws on a whim, with no excusable explanation.
 
Many still don't see what Google has become, it seems... WE are Google's products. From your Android phone tracking your location in the background, to the browser and their ubiquitous search engine, they track you to push relevant adds to you the second you connect to the Internet.

TBH, I'm getting sick of this. I want to pay for products, not a world of free crap in which I have to sell my soul to the devil to get some content. I'm sick of episodes of finding my phone's battery drained because Google's Android does God knows what in the background, without my knowledge or consent.

Granted, the way the EU chooses to address these issues is a bit weird, but their motivations are not entirely malicious.
 
Last edited:
Many still don't see what Google has become, it seems... WE are Google's products. From your Android phone tracking your location in the background, to the browser and their ubiquitous search engine, they track you to push relevant adds to you the second you connect to the Internet.

TBH, I'm getting sick of this. I want to pay for products, not a world of free crap in which I have to sell my soul to the devil to get some content. I'm sick of episodes of finding my phone's battery drained because Google's Android does God knows what in the background, without my knowledge or consent.

Granted, the way the EU chooses to address these issues is a bit weird, but their motivations are not entirely malicious.

you can tell ur phone not to track u, I think its great being able to see lines of where I have been, how many miles ive traveled in the last 7 days, track away I say!
 
This is an unfair bash towards google. Unlike the Microsoft/Internet Explorer case where when you install Windows it comes preloaded with Internet Explorer. Google isn't the preloaded search engine. You would have to go and manually download google chrome or switch your default search engine from BING to google. The whole legislation is unfounded


The Microsoft ruling is this day and age is a pointless annoyance, the browser choice update that Microsoft have been forced to foist on people just confuses the ignorant and is ignored by everybody else.
 
Many still don't see what Google has become, it seems... WE are Google's products. From your Android phone tracking your location in the background, to the browser and their ubiquitous search engine, they track you to push relevant adds to you the second you connect to the Internet.

TBH, I'm getting sick of this. I want to pay for products, not a world of free crap in which I have to sell my soul to the devil to get some content. I'm sick of episodes of finding my phone's battery drained because Google's Android does God knows what in the background, without my knowledge or consent.

Granted, the way the EU chooses to address these issues is a bit weird, but their motivations are not entirely malicious.
You can turn off tracking (and background sync and all the rest, hell you don't even need to use a gmail you can just sideload all apps), you can use a different browser and search engine, you can pay to use any product you want, you CAN do exactly what you want and Google cannot stop you it just takes more time and it more annoying to deal with. Most people use them because it is convenient to have one signin that gives you access to everything you use. Yes, we are the product but they are a company and have to make money somehow and their way is ads and filtering ads to make it more likely you will buy, without that they would die off. That is the trade off and no one is making you do it, you either take your own time and find all you own paid or preferred services or use the ones Google has and have them all in one place with the price of ads and them knowing where you go on the net.
 
In this technology age a lot of us "oldsters" still don't care for the amount intrusion we see in Google. Oh sure, we sign up for it but Google isn't exactly straight forward in conveying ALL the things they can or will do with the data. But above that I strongly protest the altered search results.

Bombarding me with all sorts of commercially oriented garbage that I have to wade through, in hopes I'll get the results that best match my search is terrible. Yes, yes, I know that everyone now does it but that just reminds me of that infamous quote "Just because we can doesn't mean we should". In the very early days the internet was intended to be non-commercial but now it's the difference between driving down a country road and through the main drag of Vegas. One is unencumbered, kind of dull and not much of the crowd. The other .... well, just don't let those bright lights blind you!
 
While I don't think splitting search and 'everything else' is a good thing, I suspect part of the problem is that when you are using Android (or Chrome) and you 'search' for something it uses Google's search engine. There isn't an option in Android's search box (typed or 'okay, google') to use an alternative search engine.

However, this is just a country flexing what it considers to be it's power to push companies around. Silliness.
 
I don't understand how they think monopolies in the tech world are the same as monopolies in the real world... In the real world I can be limited because of my area or surroundings, but in the online world it is a persons choice to go to google. They aren't forced to because there are no other search engines for the EU, it's because nobody has a product that has surpassed google to the point where we want to switch. Sure bing has a nice image finder but overall google has the most precise searches. The backbone features narrow down searches to a certain website or .domain makes google the choice for me.
 
I think EU should make Google offer a choice regarding selection of 'search engine' at the time of activation of new device, just like they did with MS, and it would be pretty fair outcome.

Just to have a look at what Google 'actually' tracks/knows about a user (http://bgr.com/2014/11/18/google-search-history-how-to-see-personal-data/).

On a side note, the way various tech companies are now in bed with Govt agencies/Politicians to further or safeguard their own interests (usually undermining users'), I think it is always a good idea to stop every now and then and see what sort of data your are 'freely' providing these companies to make even more money out of you.
 
Last edited:
Unlike the Microsoft/Internet Explorer case where when you install Windows it comes preloaded with Internet Explorer. Google isn't the preloaded search engine.

Google is the default search engine of Chrome, which is the most successful desktop browser, as well as the browser bundled with Android (and the old Android browser also used Google search). So certainly it's quite comparable to the Microsoft/IE case.
 
The point is I don't mind Google using my data for commercial purposes and I'm not allowing to Microsoft to spy my life and work for, let's say, unclear reasons.
 
@mosu
Google is far more politically imbedded when compared to Microsoft, also you need to do some digging around to know how it interacts with various 'institutions' (I can provide links but IMHO it is always better to do the hardwork to explore issues).

In plain words, no matter what these entities say about their 'user protections' etc. they are simply trying to appease people while doing more of the same while focusing on their core objective I.e. making money.
 
Back