Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Why Google Is Becoming A Victim Of Its Own Search Success

The ongoing antitrust investigation by the European Union of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) points to the problem a superior competitor can easily undergo when it supplies a product consumers and businesses want, and provide it far better than its competition.

It eventually reaches the place where it dominates a market, and the inevitable cries of antitrust violations emerge from those that can't keep up with the competition; such as in the case of Google against all of its competitors.

In the case of the EU, it hasn't yet been revealed as to what it is specifically concerned with over Google, although the regulating arm of the region, the European Commission, is asking for permission to publish the complaints it has received over the years.

According to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, the EU is close to filing antitrust charges against the tech giant, with some suggesting a fine could reach as high as $6 billion. A bigger concern to me would be what type of fixes would be required from Google, and how that would have an impact on the future revenue and earnings of the company.

Presumably this is similar to antitrust concerns the US Federal Trade Commission had in 2012 when it was considering filing antitrust charges against Google for allegedly giving its own sites preferred treatment in the results. Horrors!

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