Google accuses Brussels of not knowing how if purchase online – Jornal de Negócios – Portugal

The arm-wrestle between the European Commission and Google does not seem to have a close end in sight. The tech giant has issued a new statement to refute the charges of Brussels about the dominant position of Google in the search and comparison of prices for online purchases.

The second chapter of the argumentation of the technological happens after the European Commission had sent “this Summer [...] a set revised charges”, whose “theory” is put in question by Google, according to a statement issued on Thursday signed by vice-president Kent Walker.

In the document entitled “improving the quality is not anticompetitive, part II”, Kent Walker begins by arguing that “the revised document to the Commission is based on the hypothetical model of a shopping trip online, where consumers begin a general search in the search engine, then click on a site to compare prices and click again on different sites like Amazon, eBay or other online shopping websites. However, there is no indication that the Commission has ever conducted a survey to understand what people prefer or like, currently, they will buy”.

And the criticisms don’t stop there: “our second response, today [on Thursday] delivered, demonstrates how the case reviewed by the Commission is based on a theory that does not fit the reality of how really most of the people purchase online”. Why? According to Kent Walker consumers to “come to merchants’ websites through different ways”, and mobile, with “application dedicated are the most common form of consumers to make their purchases online”.

For these reasons, “we may not agree with a case where there is a lack of evidence and that would limit our ability to improve our products, only to satisfy the interests of a small number of websites”, concludes the responsible. However, he adds that the company is “committed to continuing to work with the European Commission, hoping to resolve the concerns raised and we hope we can continue our discussions”.

The case dates back to 2010, when Brussels began investigating the alleged favouritism to the services of the company in the polls in the portal Google. In the past year, Margrethe Vestager, commissioner for Competition of the European Commission, has decided to move forward with a process to be anticompetitive, which is still ongoing.