‘European Commission looks again at whether Google is violating antitrust law’

It seems that the European Commission has launched another investigation into abuse of power by Google. Whether Google has abused its market position is investigated, among other things, by soliciting feedback from competitors, including Yelp.

The European Commission has not made the investigation public, but Reuters news agency has seen a questionnaire sent to Google’s competitors. That would have been sent to Yelp, an American company that is mainly known for its review site. Yelp has previously filed a complaint against Google. By requesting additional information, the European Commission hopes to find out whether antitrust law has been violated.

Yelp isn’t the only company approached; other companies in the travel, restaurant and housing industries would also have been asked for feedback. The Commission wants to know what impact Google’s practices had in the period between January 2012 and December 2017. This would mainly concern changes to the search algorithm that Google implemented during that time.

Several investigations into abuse of power by Google have already been conducted in the European Union. Recently, a billion-dollar fine was imposed, although Google has appealed against it. Another consequence was that Google will charge manufacturers of Android smartphones for the delivery of Google applications.