EU lawmakers want to break up Google2014-11-27 11:30 by Daniela
The European Parliament has approved a proposed idea to break up Google and separate its search business from the company's other services. In a vote in Strasbourg, 384 legislators voted for, 174 against and 56 abstented. Although, Europe's elected body has no power to break up Google, the vote highlights the growing political resistance in Europe against the U.S. search giant, which is the most popular search engine in Europe with market share of over 90%. "Competition on the Internet is greatly skewed," Evelyne Gebhardt, a lawmaker with the left-leaning Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, said in a debate in the parliament on Wednesday. "Many suppliers and providers don't really have genuine access to consumers because there is market dominance by certain search engines." Meanwhile, the U.S. authorities have expressed their concerns about Europe's intentions to regulate the market. A joint letter from two US government committees said that the way the EU is targeting US technology companies raised questions about its commitment to open markets. "This and similar proposals build walls rather than bridges [and] do not appear to give full consideration to the negative effect such policies may have on the broader US-EU trade relationship," wrote senators Ron Wyden and Orrin Hatch and congressmen Dave Camo and Sander Levin. Google declined to comment on the matter. Read more -here-
Post your review/comments
rate:
avg:
|