Just a few days after the 4-year old antitrust investigation on Google was re-opened, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp CEO Robert Thomson has written to Joaquin Almunia, the competition commissioner of the European Commission, with strong accusatory remarks on Google’s dominance in the search market.
While searches on Google account for 70 percent of the total searches, the figure goes to around 90 percent in Europe. The company is being accused of manipulating this dominant position in the market, by not just the News Corp but several other companies, who have also fired similar comments in the past.
Thomson’s letter calls Google a ‘platform for piracy’ and ‘the spread of malicious networks.’ He has also expressed concern that the power of Google is increasing every day and that the vision of Google’s founders is now replaced by a ‘cynical management.’
After the original probe of antitrust was over, Almunia said that he has received very negative responses from complainants to the proposed settlement that was revealed in spring. Following this, the European Commission has ordered another probe on Google earlier this month.
The other companies that have chimed in to comment on Google’s unethical use of its dominance in Europe are Microsoft and German news publisher Axel Springer.
Thomson, in his letter said that the content on the internet are egregiously aggregated by Google and there is also a social cost attached to this. While Thomson has said that the settlements should be reconsidered, the others say that even if it is done, nothing can stop Google from leveraging its services to generate more revenue.
Google in a response commented: “Phew what a scorcher! Murdoch accuses Google of eating his hamster,” reflecting a story published in 1986 by The Sun run by Murdoch.
The company went further to explain that it has been trying constantly testing different strategies to give the best search results to users and went on to implement its most high profile change in algorithm named the Panda update even though it knew beforehand that its ad revenues would fall.
