Microsoft gets behind EU’s probe of Google

Microsoft gets behind EU’s probe of Google - image - Reuters

Central to yesterday ’s complaint is how Google’s practices affect advertising — the main source of revenue for web companies offering free services.

Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith, said it was filing a complaint against Google with the European Commission,

GABRIELE STEINHAUSER

Published: 2011/04/01 07:21:24 AM

MICROSOFT has thrown its weight behind a probe by European Union (EU) authorities into whether rival Google is unfairly thwarting competition in the online search market.


Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith, said it was filing a complaint against Google with the European Commission, citing concern over "a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive alternative".


A spokeswoman for EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the commission had taken note of Microsoft’s complaint and would give Google the opportunity to tell its side of the story.


The commission began an investigation into Google’s behaviour in November after complaints from several smaller web companies that the search giant was burying them in its results and engaging in other anticompetitive practices.


Google has long pointed to Microsoft’s involvement in the probe, since one of the original complainants, online shopping site Ciao, is owned by Microsoft search engine Bing. Another company involved in the case, UK-based price-comparison site Foundem, is a member of a Microsoft-sponsored technology trade organisation.


Al Verney, a Brussels-based spokesman for Google, said the company was not surprised by Microsoft’s move since one of Microsoft’s subsidiaries was one of the original complainants. "For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we’re happy to explain to anyone how our business works," he said.


Nevertheless, Microsoft’s direct complaint adds weight to the case, since it lists several specific examples of alleged anticompetitive practices by Google involving some of the search engine’s pet projects.


Mr Smith says that Google "put in place a growing number of technical measures to restrict competing search engines from properly accessing" YouTube .


"Without proper access to YouTube, Bing and other search engines cannot stand with Google on an equal footing in returning search results with links to YouTube videos and that, of course, drives more users away from competitors and to Google," he wrote in a blog post.


Mr Smith also said that Google blocked Microsoft’s Windows Phones "from operating properly with YouTube", but offers better services to its own Android phones and iPhones, whose producer, Apple, does not own a search engine.


With Bing, Microsoft is one of Google’s biggest direct rivals. It also has a partnership deal with the other big search engine, Yahoo .


Yet neither Bing nor Yahoo have found a way of closing in on Google, which processes two out of three online searches in the US. In Europe, the company controls more than 90% of the search market. The two companies also compete in other areas, such as cloud computing — where they offer remote server space and software processing to clients.


Microsoft says Google is keeping some advertisers from accessing their own data and transferring it to rival advertising platforms, such as its own adCenter. That allegation echoes complaints by other companies and is part of the probe.


Mr Smith said Microsoft had provided the European Commission with a "considerable body of expert analysis" to support its case.


With its complaint, Microsoft finds itself in a new situation in Europe, after it battled antitrust investigations and billion-euro fines from the commission for years.


That Microsoft is getting involved in the EU’s Google probe is quite "natural", said Frederico Etro, an economics professor at the University of Venice who has studied the case. However, "to frame this just as a Microsoft-Google scenario is a bit missing the bigger picture".