Ref. Ares(2019)4951936 - 29/07/2019


                          (ENV)

From:                              ÎNOTAI Andras (CAB-VELLA)
Sent:                              mardi 7 juillet 2015 11:56
To:                                CAB VELLA LIST
Subject:                           Meeting with Google - 7 July



I’ve met representatives of Google today. They have set out their views on the COM’s State of Objections of 15 April
which alleged that Google is abusing its dominant position by giving preferential treatment to its own comparison
shopping to the detriment of rival comparison shopping services. They contest that their market behaviour is having
an anti-competitive effect (although they did not explicitly contest the preferential treatment): consumers are
increasingly using comparison shopping services directly (not through search engines, e.g. through mobile phone
apps) and the traffic/revenues of rival comparison shopping services did not fall in the past years. They are concerned
that the possible outcome of the case would force Google to offer to EU consumers a lower quality service (e.g. by
removing google shopping from search results). They feel that the case is politically motivated, driven essentially by
ineffective European competitors and Microsoft who “probably wants Google to go through the sartie ordeal than
themselves’’.




ANDRÁS G. ÎNOTAI
Member of Cabinet
Cabinet of Commissioner Karmenu Vella
European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

European Commission


B-1049 Brussels/Belgium

              Kcuec.europa.eu

http://ec.euroDa.eu/commission/2014-2019/vella en




                    Consultation on
                    International Ocean Governance




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