Search engine giant Google might have to change the way its search results are displayed in Europe. If the changes are not made then the search engine might have to face charges of diverting traffic to its own services.
Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, while talking in an interview said that he intends to prevent the search engine from allegedly distorting choices for consumers and taking business away from its rivals. Almunia said, “We are still investigating, but my conviction is (that Google is) diverting traffic”.
The competition commissioner was referring to Google’s preferential treatment of its own vertical search services. He also said that the company is monetizing this type of business by utilizing the strong position they have in the general search market. Almunia went on to say that that it is not just a dominant positioning that Google is guilty of, but it could be abusing its market domination.
An ultimatum was issued by the EU on December 18, 2012 to Google, which gave it a month to prepare itself with a detailed proposal to resolve a two-year investigation into complaints, which say that the company used its position to block rivals like Microsoft. Almunia iterated that there was cause for concern for the way Google presented their own services. He also said that the search engine showed a more constructive approach at a meeting in the month of December 2012 and warned that he would be obliged to issue formal changes if the proposal was unsatisfactory.
