Members of the European Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee will next week (23 September) ask Joaquín Almunia, the European commissioner for competition, to defend his handling of a high-profile antitrust investigation into Google’s search and advertising business.

Speaking at a conference in the United States on 10 September, Almunia admitted that he was unlikely to conclude the case, which began in 2010 and has come to dominate his mandate. Margrethe Vestager, a former deputy prime minister and economy minister of Denmark, has been put forward for the competition portfolio in the next European Commission and will inherit the case.

Many MEPs have been outspoken in their criticism of Almunia’s third proposed settlement with Google, the result of two years of stop-start negotiations.
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, a Spanish liberal MEP who has followed the case closely, said it was “fantastic news” that Almunia would not accept a deal that would bind the incoming Commission and, he argued, harm European small businesses, innovation and consumers. But he warned: “We cannot be happy: we have lost two years while Google has grown its market share.”

The MEP suggested that Almunia had not dedicated sufficient resources to the case.

The Commission has focused its investigation on accusations that Google, which has a market share of around 90% in Europe, unfairly promotes its own specialised search services such as Google Shopping or Google Travel on its search results page and appropriates content from rival websites.
In 2012, Almunia announced that he would seek to settle the case rather than formally charge the company. Almunia has personally backed three versions of a broad settlement deal, only to row back each time in the face of opposition from the case’s 20 complainants, politicians and even fellow commissioners. The US antitrust authority in January 2013 dismissed similar claims against Google as unproven.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president-elect of the European Commission, wants to make Europe’s digital economy central to his agenda. Dealing with the many regulatory challenges raised by Google – as well as other internet giants – will be an important part of this.

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Almunia’s appearance in the Parliament comes against a backdrop of growing hostility to Google in the EU. On Monday (15 September), Heiko Maas, Germany’s justice minister, said that Google had to be more transparent over its search algorithm.