The Google Saga: episode I

Abstract:

After 8 years of investigation, the European Commission decided that Google has abused its market dominance by giving prominent placement in its search results to its own comparison shopping service, whilst demoting rival services. This paper discusses the first of these conducts.

The paper will assess the harm arising from Google’s conduct on consumers and merchants, and will discuss the importance of causality in proving that a conduct is abusive. The paper will also briefly present the remedies for Google’s conduct. The argument made herein is that the Commission’s decision enters uncharted territories in unilateral conduct enforcement and the decision is subject to criticisms which will be analysed herein. The paper shall assess the implications of the Commission’s approach and remedies in this case for future enforcement in unilateral conduct cases.