EU Does It to Google

Three years ago I wrote a piece on the face of the EU’s Commisioner for Competition.  I was sure then that I didn’t like this woman and her policies.  She was working on a fine for Google then and has never given up that fight.  Some people might admire her for her steadfastness, but I see that a blind ambition not related to any substantive issues that grounds for going after the US tech giant.  The side benefit of that is the US is considering a look at the same thing.  Both approaches are absolutely wrong.

Google is being blamed for doing what most manufacturers, including those in Europe also do.  They bundle their products in ways that give a consumer a broad range of capabilities that can be tailored.  Selling an Android phone bundled with a Chrome browser makes technical sense.  Microsoft can have Bing and Apple can have Safari for the same reason.  They worked the technical issues between operating system and browser and bundled them knowing they work.  They don’t have an obligation, but do test other browsers as well, largely for the same reason - giving their customers choices.  Google has 90% of searches because they are really good at doing that, but the EU wants to penalize that success.  To what end?

Does Europe have a better browser or search engine that is being denied a place in the market?  No.  It certainly is not an issue of keeping competition out of the browser market, because there are plenty of browsers, but no competition.

What gives the EU legal status to take own the whole tech world to make a point that will not benefit anybody in the EU, but will make money to continue this kind of nonsense?  This is the kind of case that led to Brexit.  Too many regulations of too many things.  Eventually, people get tired of it and revolt.  The EU may love sticking it to a big US company, but that should come back to bite them.  Instead of looking at Google, our Congress should be looking at how the EU uses our tech companies as a piggy bank to keep revenue coming in.  Look at how the EU tried to structure the Brexit deal to keep the US out of the markets there.  What kind of competition is that?  Look at all the regulations that favor a country’s products over another.  The EU should not be throwing stones when it lives in a glass house.