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The European Parliament 's Quest For Limit Its Market Control

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Perhaps the most critical approach to Google’s position has been the European Parliament’s quest to limit its market control. The company, which controls over 90% of searches in many European countries, has faced a number of legal challenges from the European Parliament in recent years.

The European Union is known for its criticism of antitrust probes – it challenged Microsoft’s position as a market leader a few years ago. It has since turned its attention towards Google and criticised the search giant for abusing its market position.

EU has accused the company for its anticompetitive practises, claiming the company promotes its own services over those of its rivals. The European Parliament has called the company to unbundle its …show more content…

While there are many who have welcomed the EU’s decision to go after Google’s monopoly position, the US government has sometimes accused the EU for looking after its own interests. Nonetheless, the US Federal Trade Commission did look at antitrust complaints against Google earlier, but decided not to pursue stronger action.

The dangers of a digital monopoly

But should digital monopolies be limited? Are there any dangers associated to companies such as Google having such a big market share? The following are some of the dangers of a digital monopoly and the reasons why regulators are right to keep an eye on market position.

Problems over the ownership of data

Many experts, who argue against digital monopolies, aren’t necessarily concerned about the market positions per se or their influence on the competition, but the ownership issues over data. Companies such as Google are able to collect a vast amount of data from their users through the different operations and use this data in order to stay ahead of other businesses.

Furthermore, many argue the company hasn’t always acquired this data through appropriate measures. For example, Google has been accused of using exclusive deals in order to attract new customers and that some of its services collect data without its customers’

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