The European Parliament is preparing to call on regulators to unbundle Google's search offering from other web services it offers in a challenge to the company's dominance.
The motion would be a major strike against the company, which has been at the center of controversy in Europe for a number of years over its practices.
The motion "calls on the Commission to consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services as one potential long-term solution" to the leveling of competition online.
It's important to note that a parliamentary motion such as this one will ultimately not have any power over Google, but it may help convince the European Commission, which has investigated Google a number of times and would have the power to order the company to break up into smaller pieces.
"It's a strong expression of the fact that things are going to change," said U.S. attorney Gary Reback, who has filed complaints against Google over fair search. "The parliament doesn't bind the commission for sure, but they have to listen."
While Google has a number of competitors in the U.S., in Europe Google has a much larger market share, more than 90 percent. This is why Google's practices are so important in Europe. Google has been criticized for its anticompetitive practices, such as promoting services that it offers over services offered by its rivals.
Google was also recently criticized by press publishers, particularly in Germany, who have indicated that they want to take a cut of money from Google for the snippets of text that appear in search results.
Apart from antitrust probes in Europe, Google has also received a number of data protection fines as privacy regulators attempt to curb the way that the company works.
"We are seeking unified data protection across Europe, one which American companies will have to abide by as well. If this is not the case, there is scope for punitive measures and fines," said Günther Oettinger, digital economy commissioner. "We want European copyright legislation and we want companies like Google to adhere to European copyright standards. We have the legal jurisdiction for this and we want to bring a degree of fairness into the relationship between the users, Google and its competitors."
Apart from these issues, the company has also been at the center of the debate regarding the "right to be forgotten," which refers to the fact that individuals have the right to request that certain information in search results related to them on Google be removed.
Google is likely to continue having a rough time in Europe considering its dominance, but only time will tell if it is actually forced to unbundle its services.
