EU Antitrust Chief Keeps Open Mind on Next Steps in Google Case

The European Union’s antitrust chief shrugged off Google’s attack on EU allegations that the search-engine company abused its monopoly power, saying she hasn’t made up her mind on how the probe will play out. Margrethe Vestager said her staff in the European Commission is analyzing Google’s highly critical response to a statement of objections “with an open mind.” “What we do now is that we dig into the Google response” and listen to comments from complainants, Vestager said.

The Google response “is a substantial piece of work” and even with EU’s resources “it will still take some time before we’re done with it.” Twelve months into her job, Vestager has to decide on the next steps in the EU’s five-year antitrust battle with Google. The Mountain View, California-based company described demands in the EU statement of objections as “peculiar and problematic.” The EU accused the tech company of “positioning and displaying more favorably, in its general search result pages, its own comparison-shopping service.”