After three years of an ongoing case with Google and a European watchdog commission, an agreement is needed in order for Google to stop being accused of abusing their power of favoring their Internet searches over competitors, the Associated Press reported.
The proposal said Google will now display European search results to be unbiased to their sponsored searches for hotels and shopping, among others, the AP reported. The settlement agreement also saved Google from continuing the case and paying fines up to $5 billion.
In their new proposal, Google has agreed to show search result queries from three competitors the same as it presents its own searches for its specialized services, according to the AP. Clearer labeling of search results tied to Google rather than "natural" search results were also an agreed term in the proposal.
The new changes would also apply to using Google search on mobile devices, the AP reported.
EU Antitrust Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he's "strongly convinced" Google's third proposal will be enough for Europe to settle, even though the initial reaction to the proposal by some of the 18 plaintiffs were negative, according to the AP.
"This is an important step forward," Alumina told reporters in Brussels, the AP reported. "Without preventing Google from improving its own services, it provides users with real choice between competing services presented in a comparable way."
Last year, the EU Commission discarded the first two proposals by Google deeming them insufficient, according to the AP.
"We will be making significant changes to the way Google operates in Europe," Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, said, according to the AP. "The company now looks forward to resolving the matter for good."
Microsoft-led group of Google's tech competitors, FairSearch, said firms like Oracle, Expedia and Tripadvisor, were all against the Commission's request and said it is "worse than doing nothing," the AP reported.
Fair Search attorney Thomas Vinje said the Google proposal, if accepted, will "lock in discrimination and raise rivals' costs instead of solving the problem of Google's anti-competitive practices."
Alumina disagrees and says "the concessions are far-reaching and have the clear potential of restoring a level playing field with competitors," adding that "no antitrust authority in the world has obtained such concessions," according to the AP.
