EU symbolically casts a vote for Google to split
THE EUROPEAN parliament yesterday overwhelmingly supported a motion yesterday to have anti-trust regulators break up the popular internet search engine Google by a margin of 384 to 174.
The body has no power to break up the net giant, but the vote will send out a clear message about whether politicians want regulators to take a tough line.
The vote was proposed by European Parliament members Andreas Schwab, a German conservative, and Ramon Tremosa, a Spanish liberal.
“In case the proceedings against Google carry on without any satisfying decisions and the current anti-competitive behaviour continues to exist, a regulation of the dominant online web search should be envisaged,” Schwab and Tremosa said in a statement.
The vote raises pressure on Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s recently installed competition commissioner, to speed up a decision on whether to bring formal antitrust charges against Google.
That inquiry, begun in 2010, involves Google’s dominant position in Europe’s internet search business, and asks whether the company’s search results favour other Google-related services and whether it impedes its competitors’ search-advertising platforms.
Vestager, a Danish free-market liberal, replaced Joaquín Almunia, who started the antitrust probe.