Google ruling makes this a good day for fair competition and consumers – Watson

Tom Watson MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and
Sport, commenting on Google’s record fine for its shopping
service, said:

“This ruling has been a long time coming and is a vindication of long
running concerns about Google’s anti-competitive, unfair practices.

“When a company wields such power that it is effectively the gateway to
the internet, it is the duty of regulators and lawmakers to verify that power
is being exercised fairly. This ruling makes clear that Google shopping has not
been operating fairly and could open the door to other investigations of
similar examples of market distortion by the company.  

“This ruling rights an unfair wrong, making this a good day for fair
competition and consumers.”

Ends

Notes

·         Today the European Commission has handed Google a record fine of 2.42bn
euros ($2.7bn; £2.1bn) after it ruled the company had abused its power by
promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results.

·         Google’s unfair advantage has been a source of long running concern with
Tom Watson writing about the issue in 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/feb/14/google-competition-searching-solution