‘EU wants major investigation into the behavior of tech companies and search engines’
The European Union is said to be planning to investigate the behavior of tech companies. Especially the transparency in the creation of search results in search engines is of interest. We also look at the collection of user data.
That is according to Reuters, which has seen documents from the European Commission. These documents are not yet public, but the plans are expected to be announced on May 6. The European research focuses mainly on companies that offer search engines. The European Commission wants to know how the search results are created. There must be clarity about paid links and advertisements, among other things.
The data that search companies and other companies in the tech world collect is also coming under scrutiny. There are concerns within the EU about the large amounts of data that tech companies are collecting from their users. The European Commission wants to know exactly what is collected and what happens with that data. Compensation to copyright holders when displaying copyrighted material is also explored, as is the ability of users to move from one platform to another. With the latter, the emphasis would be on possible restrictions that tech companies impose on their users when switching.
Within the European Union, there are concerns about the dominance of American tech companies, including Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, in the digital market. Member states, including France and Germany, are concerned that this US dominance is hurting the growth of European tech companies. The EU has already said it wants the next major player in the tech world to come from European soil.
Earlier this week, the EU officially charged Google with abuse of power with Android and price comparison with its search engine. An investigation into Google’s practices had been in the pipeline for some time. Incidentally, the accusation against Google would have nothing to do with the investigation into transparency about search results, Reuters said.