This was a busy week for everyone - trying to finish all work issues before Christmas and then starting to prepare for the holiday season, too. The European institutions were busy, too, so let us try to catch up (further) on some of the news regarding European consumer law.
On the 18th of December, VP of the European Commission, Joaquin Almunia, announced that he intends to continue to try and reach an agreement with Google, regarding the antitrust behaviour of the latter. As you may recall, BEUC called for effective remedies to be agreed on between the parties (Manipulating online search results). The concerns of the European Commission relate to:
" - the way in which Google's vertical search services are displayed within general search results as compared to services of competitors;
- the way Google may use and display third party content on its vertical search services;
- exclusivity agreements for the delivery of Google search advertisements on other websites; and
- restrictions in the portability of AdWords advertising campaigns."
A detailed commitment text is to be expected from Google in January 2013.
