Google could face a $9B EU fine for rigging search results in its favour

Re:Google could face a $9B EU fine for rigging search result... by tyingq on Friday June 02, 2017 @01:03PM (#14471480)

It's not just the EU that thinks Google has a monopoly in search. The FTC investigators from the US that looked into thought so as well. Their bosses decided not to act on it though, for reasons unknown.

The 160 page document[1] is very comprehensive, and worth a read. There's a few surprising things in there. The way they manually adjusted the algorithm several times specifically to demote "comparison shopping engines" (CSE) is very telling. Their manual testers liked CSE properties, and found the results relevant and useful. Google kept changing the criteria and questions until they found a combination that justified demoting them...so that their own CSE would get more traffic.

One of the conclusions: "Google has unlawfully maintained its monopoly over general search and search advertising"

[1]http://graphics.wsj.com/google-ftc-report/

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Re:Google could face a $9B EU fine for rigging search result... by jhall1468 on Friday June 02, 2017 @01:09PM (#14471553)

The reason the FTC investigation was never going to go anywhere is because Google lacked durable market power. The reason they can't be accused of a monopoly is because they can't "raise prices" using their market dominance. Monopolies are not illegal in the US. Utilizing monopolies to harm consumers is.

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Re:Google could face a $9B EU fine for rigging search result... by ocdtrekkie on Monday June 05, 2017 @05:13PM (#14492125)

I suggest you look into the former FTC Commissioner, Joshua Wright, which should give you some idea where the interests of the FTC's leadership has been, and likely will continue to be: https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/google-gets-a-seat-on-th...

This says a lot more about why the FTC didn't go forward with its staff's recommendations to go forward with charges than anything else.

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Re:Google could face a $9B EU fine for rigging search result... by tyingq on Friday June 02, 2017 @01:13PM (#14471607)

I don't know how definitive that is. Search may not have "prices", but they can use their monopoly in search to manipulate consumers for products they sell that do have prices. The CSE situation I mentioned is specifically something that does involve prices.

I can't find anything that says that's the reason action wasn't taken either.

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