Reports circulating across Europe suggest that the EU is to instruct Google to break up due to what’s being seen as its unfair dominance. A report in the Financial Times says that European politicians want to make the tech giant separate its search arm from the rest of its business.
Google owns 90% of the search market in Europe and has been the subject of scrutiny by the EU for some time. Google hasn’t officially been named in the draft motion that the Financial Times but it is thought that they may be the subject of action to be taken by the European Commission. Google were forced to comply with requests for “inadequate” and “irrelevant” web pages to be removed from its search results when the EU launched its new “right to be forgotten” law. It’s thought that the draft suggesting Google must break their company up will be completed this week before a vote takes place.
Experts have speculated on whether the EU would be able to force Google to act or whether the idea would work in practice. German MEP Andreas Schwab said that the practicalities still had to addressed. Unbundling the search arm of Google from the rest of the company would apparently stop its other companies including YouTube from benefitting unfairly from its 90% share of the search market.
So, do you think Google have become too powerful? Or are the EU just trying to punish the company for being successful? Give us your comments below.