Last week, Microsoft filed complaint against Google in Europe regarding issues of antitrust. Among many distraught companies, Microsoft has reason to believe Google's practices in promoting its products are unfair to others in the industry. The underlying example that is sparking the interest of the oppositions top attorneys is how the search giant uses its Google Price Search to promote its smart phone software through its search engines.
Microsoft’s general counsel, Brad Smith, stated last week that “Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in markets for online search and search advertising to the detriment of the European consumers.” Smith added that the search giant owns 95% of the search market in Europe and that Google has targeted other firms to discontinue their ability to create a competitive search alternative. Smith also argued that since Google's acquisition of YouTube in 2006, the company has restricted other search engines like Bing and Yahoo from properly accessing YouTube videos for search results.
In a related dispute, Smith said Google does not allow Windows Phone 7 devices to adequately search content on YouTube. Conversely, the company does allow the iPhone and Android smartphones to perform such searches. For instance, a company that specializes in financial analysis software was surprised to discover only iPhone users were finding their products designed for smartphone specific searches.
Among other matters of legal interest, Google reportedly restricts access to content owned by book publishers, disables online advertisers from accessing their own data, and blocks European websites from implementing search boxes from competing search engines.
“We readily appreciate that Google should continue to have the freedom to innovate,” Smith said. “But it shouldn’t be permitted to pursue practices that restrict others from innovating and offering competitive alternatives."
