BEUC responded to Google’s 2^nd round proposals which aim to settle the European Commission’s antitrust investigation into its abuse of dominance in the online search market.

BEUC called upon the European Commission to reject the proposed commitments on the grounds they will only harm consumer welfare and stifle innovation. Instead of remedying the situation in a market where Google has been abusing its dominance, approving the commitments as they stand would legitimise anticompetitive practices and provide Google with additional tools to further strengthen its dominance. The terms of the remedies are so ambiguous, weak and indeed damaging that they cannot be considered sufficient.

Erecting barriers to market entry, allowing a dominant company to define and tax its competitors and misleading consumers who expect to see fair and appropriate search results all render these remedies unacceptable in the eyes of Europe’s consumers.