The top anti-trust official in Europe said in a speech that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has run out of time to cure what the EC sees as rampant monopolistic behavior. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said “I want to give the company the opportunity to offer remedy proposals that would avoid lengthy proceedings”. He expects a response by July.
Google has the choice of relenting in a way which could hurt its revenue in the region, or to begin a long legal fight not unlike the one Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) began with the same body nearly two decades ago. The goal posts do belong to a sovereign entity, which means it can move them almost as they please. The open issue is whether Google sets practices which give it advantages over other search products much like Microsoft did for its browser. Microsoft, as everyone knows, lost
Douglas A. McIntyre