Google has claimed that ‘Google’ is the most searched term on Microsoft search engine Bing. The statement was made by Alphabet Inc unit lawyer Alfonso Lamadrid at the European Union’s General Court in Luxembourg on Tuesday, the second day of the weeklong hearing in a 2018 antitrust penalty case. “We have submitted evidence showing that the most common search query on Bing is by far Google," a Bloomberg report quoted Lamadrid as saying. As per the report, Google made the argument while asking that EU judges strike down the antitrust order against it, as well as the record five billion dollar fine. The European Commission had imposed the penalty on Google, alleging that it had unfairly pushed its search engine on Android mobile phones. It had said that Google was attempting to stifle competition and create a near-monopoly.
In response, Lamadrid argued that people chose to use Google and were not forced to do the same. He claimed that Google’s general search market share aligned with consumer surveys which showed that 95 per cent users preferred Google over rival search engines.
As per an Associated Press report, this was one of three antitrust penalties totaling more than $8 billion that the commission hit Google with between 2017 and 2019. The others focused on shopping and search, and the California company is appealing all three. While the penalties involved huge sums, critics point out that Google can easily afford them and that the fines haven’t done much to widen competition. In its original decision, the commission said Google’s practices restrict competition and reduce choices for consumers. Google, however, plans to argue that free and open source Android has led to lower-priced phones and spurred competition with its chief rival, Apple.
“Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world. This case isn’t supported by the facts or the law,” the company said when the five-day hearing opened at the European Court of Justice’s General Court, as per the AP report.
Recently, Google abused the dominant position of its Android operating system in India, using its “huge financial muscle" to illegally hurt competitors, the country’s antitrust authority found in a report on its two-year probe seen by Reuters. Alphabet’s Google reduced “the ability and incentive of device manufacturers to develop and sell devices operating on alternative versions of Android," says the June report by the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) investigations unit.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
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'Google' the Most Searched Term on Rival Microsoft Bing, Says Alphabet Inc Lawyer - News18
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