EU commissioner ups pressure on Google in antitrust dispute
THE EU wants Google to come up with more concessions within weeks if it is to avoid formal charges in an investigation into alleged anti-competitive behaviour, a top official said yesterday.
EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he was still waiting to receive Google’s response to his opinion that concessions offered so far by the internet search giant do not go far enough to address the EU’s concerns.
“We need more and we need more not during the next year, we need more during the next weeks,” he told a news conference. “I’m waiting for a reaction from Google to my […] statements saying that […] I am not satisfied. We need more. We need more, not during the next year, but during the next weeks. I have not yet received this answer,” Mr. Almunia said.
The EU rejected Google’s latest set of revised proposals to settle the three-year antitrust row at the end of last year.
At the time, Almunia said that “there is little time left, but the ball is still in Google’s court. But within a short time frame, the ball will then be here.”