EU antitrust authorities threaten to break up Google

EU threat to break-up Google over fears about its dominance and claims of anti-competitive practices

European competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager has issued the bizarre threat to break-up US internet giant Google due to "grave suspicions" about its growing dominance.

That's according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, published over the weekend. It claims that the European Commission has grown increasingly worried about Google's dominance of the internet and internet advertising, and believes that it could be abusing its dominance.

And Vestager is not against the idea of trying to break-up Google down into a range of smaller companies - a threat that is being seriously considered, according to the report.

Last year, the European Union fined the company €2.4 billion for exploiting its dominant position in the search engine market to promote its own shopping comparison services. Officials accused the firm of building a price comparison service to outflank rival firms.

At the time, Vestager said that it was a "good thing" that "Google has come up with many innovative products and services that have made a difference to our lives".

But she added that the the "strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn't just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals".

She continued: "Instead, Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors.

Google has since appealed the decision and responded by defending its comparison service: "When you shop online, you want to find the products you're looking for quickly and easily. And advertisers want to promote those same products."

In recent months, Vestager has warned Google that it will likely face more, similar cases in the future, including forthcoming EU legislation that will demand more transparent and "fairer" commercial practices when it deals with smaller companies.

The European Commission is also developing new laws to regulate e-commerce platforms, search engines and app stores, ensuring that they rank results fairly and do not penalise firms.

And, the cherry on top: it plans to levy a flat-rate turnover tax on US internet and technology giants in a bid to reduce what it claims is tax avoidance by companies like Google, Apple and others.