EU Charges Google with Market Abuse, Launches Investigation into Android Mobile System

The European Commission has laid out charges against Internet search engine giant Google for abusing its dominant position in the continent "by systematically favoring its own comparison shopping product," Google Shopping.

"I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service" and broken European law, says the EU commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager.

Google will be given the opportunity "to convince the commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe," she added.

If found at fault under EU antitrust rules, a company faces a fine of up to 10 per cent of its annual sales - in Google's case, $66 billion in 2014.

The EU complaint focuses primarily on comparison shopping. According to the complaint, the EU says an investigation that opened in 2010 suggests Google gives "systematic favourable treatment" to its own product, Google Shopping, in its search results by showing it more prominently than other services discovered by Google's search algorithm.

"The Commission is concerned that users do not necessarily see the most relevant results in response to queries," the complaint states. "This is to the detriment of consumers, and stifles innovation."

Meanwhile, the European Union has also opened a new inquiry into the Android mobile system.

"Smartphones, tablets and similar devices play an increasing role in many people's daily lives and I want to make sure the markets in this area can flourish without anti-competitive constraints imposed by any company," she said.

The search giant makes up 90 percent of the EU search market. The company has been given just 10 weeks to reply to the inquiry.

In two blog posts in response, Google said that in search, there was in fact "more choice than ever before."

"While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways - and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark."