German official mulls breaking up Google
German official mulls breaking up Google
5 Hours Ago
The Associated Press
A senior German official has warned that Google may have
such a dominant market position that a breakup of the company "must be
seriously considered."
Such a move—which would be difficult to enforce because
Google is based in the United States—could be a last resort for countries
seeking to prevent the Internet search giant from systematically crowding out
competitors, said Sigmar Gabriel, who is Germany's economy minister and vice
chancellor.
"A breakup, of the kind that has been carried out
for electricity and gas grids, must be seriously considered here," Gabriel
wrote in an op-ed published Friday by German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung. "But it can only be a last resort. That's why we are focusing on
anti-trust style regulation of Internet platforms."
Google has for years faced criticism over its dominant
position in Europe, where no serious local rival has emerged to challenge its
search business. But Gabriel's comments reflect a new sense of urgency among
European governments and businesses that the continent's home-grown Internet
industry risks being smothered by American rivals.
On Thursday, some 400 companies—including major German
and French publishers—announced they were submitting a new anti-trust complaint
against Google. The grouping, calling itself Open Internet Project, alleges
that Google promotes its own products in search results at the expense of
rivals.
Gabriel's spokesman Stefan Rouenhoff said Friday that the
Economy Ministry was examining various aspects of Google's business, including
also its compliance with privacy rules and its use of legal tax-reduction
measures that have irked European governments.
He stressed that a breakup of Google and other Internet
companies, while legally possible, would be difficult.
"With a breakup of Google the global dimension would
naturally raise questions of enforceability," Rouenhoff told reporters in
Berlin. "Such a procedure would take a certain amount of time."
Rouenhoff indicated that instead of breaking up a company
Germany seek to introduce new rules at the level of EU anti-trust regulation
requiring companies like Google to guarantee that rivals feature in search
results.
The head of Germany's anti-trust office said there was
traditionally a high threshold for proving that a company was exploiting its
market position.
"If one wants to proceed with Google and other companies,
legislative measures may need to be considered," Andreas Mundt said.
In his op-ed, Gabriel's painted an alarming picture of
the threat posed to society by Internet companies.
"It's about nothing less than the future of
democracy in the digital age, and therefore also about the freedom,
emancipation, participation and self-determination of 500 million people in
Europe," he wrote.
Google dismissed Gabriel's claim.
"We are surprised by the opinion of the minister of
economics that companies like Google would harm users, economy and
society," Philipp Justus, managing director of Google Germany, said in a
statement sent to The Associated Press.
"We have been and are always open for conversations
about how to make the most of digitization both for the economy and for
consumers," he added.
—By The Associated Press
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