Google is probably one of the biggest corporation of all time. That’s quite an accomplishment, right? The European Union doesn’t think so.
Now, the European Union accuses Google of breaking antitrust rules and creating a huge monopoly in search engine and online shopping dominance. After a five year investigation lead by the European Union, they may plan to sue Google for over 6.4 billion dollars. That’s a tenth of what Google makes in a year. It took no time for Google to respond to this potential threat. It called the EU accusations ‘very disappointing’. They used charts to show Amazon and eBay’s profits in France, Germany, and United Kingdom do even better than Google’s. ?The rebuttal talked of how the EU plans to investigate Android soon. They reminded the EU of their lowered prices, impeccable customer service, and the cool apps Android provides, not to mention the revenue and jobs they contribute. Google believes they have, “…a very strong case”.
Looking at the charts from Germany, France, and United Kingdom, they do have a strong case. Those charts put Google in the middle of the competition. This is even against local European competition. ?Ebay and Amazon do way better. Even smaller companies we’ve never heard of in the USA do better in some cases. So the case of the charts is valid. But this is only part of the story. How are ratings doing in Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, etc? But on the other hand, the three nations studied in the charts are the biggest economies in Europe right now. So is it safe to assume these charts could be accurate for the other European Union nations? And, if so, then that opens other questions. Are European search engine companies in cahoots with the European Union to lessen Google’ s influence so the local search engines can have all the spoils?