The European Commission is not satisfied with Google's proposed remedy to accusations of unfair competition and has suggested that the search engine giant should improve its offer within time.
"The latest proposals are not acceptable in the sense that they are not proposals that can eliminate our concerns regarding competition and in particular regarding the way Google's rivals in vertical search...are being treated," Joaquín Almunia, European Union Competition Commissioner, said in an interview with the spanish radio station 'Radio Nacional de España'.
The revised proposals are to settle a long-standing antitrust case in which Google has been accused of giving an unfair treatment to its rivals like review service Yelp and other price comparison shopping services.
Almunia also hinted that if Google wants to come back with a better offer, it should do it soon. If EU decides to file a formal complaint, legal processes will start and will subsequently lead to hefty fines for the Internet search company.
"There is little time left, but the ball is still in Google's court," Almunia said. "But within a short time frame, the ball will then be here and then it will be the moment to take decisions."
Almunia suggested that Google give links to rivals and display them in larger text, along with a logo next to the URL. He also suggested inclusion of a brief summary next to each link, so that it would give users an idea about what was being offered to them.
However, a Google spokesman Al Verney said the company has aptly addressed the commissioner's concerns in the current proposals. "We've made significant changes to address the EC's concerns, greatly increasing the visibility of rival services and addressing other specific issues," he said in an email statement. Google's proposal included marking its own products in search results and displaying rival sites whenever one of its own products was displayed. The search engine giant also said it would allow advertisers to easily switch to other platforms.
The search engine company has a 90 percent market share in Europe compared to 70 percent in the U.S.
