Law and Innovation

This article originally appeared on  IP Flow  at  http://mimesislaw.com/category/ipflow   The European Commission (EC) antitrust team and Google are continually at loggerheads. The latest: a   formal antitrust complaint   over Android and another separate complaint on prioritization of shopping search results. This investigation is the second major case between the two frenemies.     What’s going on ? The EC is claiming that Google has abused its dominant position by imposing restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile operators and by promoting its services and apps. To be in a dominant position in Europe is not in itself illegal, but the company has a special responsibility to ensure that its conduct does not distort competition ( Article 102 TFEU ). What kind of business practices the EC is objecting to ? As explained in the  complaint , Google breaches EU antitrust rules by: “Requiring manufacturers to pre-install...

J oaquin Almunia's circular picture is probably hanging in Google's EU Headquarter with a dart in the center of his nose... with the eyes the next potential target... More than two years ago, in November 2010, the European Commission  decided to open an antitrust investigation into allegations that the Internet giant has abused a dominant position in online search (in violation of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). Its core role is the regulation of monopolies. Although dominance alone is not an abuse, a company in a dominant position has a special responsibility to ensure that its conduct does not impair the competition. As of March 2013, in Europe , Google controlled 93% of the search engine market, over 97% of mobile search and 87% of search advertising revenue [1] . Even though I am a lawyer and I am not supposed to understand numbers (that's for engineers), it looks like Google nailed all the competit...