More than forty European competitors of Google’s online shopping service ‘Shopping’ are urging the European Commission to already use the regulation from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that applies from 2023.
This is to force Google to comply with an EU measure imposed in 2017.
At the time, the Commission stated that Google should allow more competition on its search page. At the same time, Google was fined $2.4 billion for anti-trust violations and had to stop favouring its shopping service over rivals.
Google promised in response to the measures that it would treat its own Shopping service the same as its competitors when bidding in an auction for ads. But in a letter to European Commissioner Margrethe Vestager (responsible for competition matters), 43 companies – including Britain’s Kelkoo, France’s LeGuide Group, Sweden’s PriceRunner and Germany’s idealo – say the proposal was legally deficient and had not resulted in them now take advantage of the ad auctions.
“The Commission should force space on the general search results pages for the most relevant providers by removing Google’s Shopping Units that do not allow competition but lead to higher prices and less choice for consumers,” the companies wrote in a statement letter that Reuters has seen.
The organizations argue that Google’s online mechanism still violates the Digital Markets Act (DMA), Vestager’s new rules aimed at curbing the power of tech giants, which will apply from May 2023.
