European Commission investigates allegations of abuse of dominant position by Google

The European Commission is investigating a complaint by three of Google’s competitors that it has been abusing its dominant position, contrary to Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. They have alleged that the search engine giant unfairly relegated its rivals amongst search results. The Commission said it is investigating the complaints and gathering more data. Google insists that it has done nothing wrong and is very confident that it will be found to have operated within European Union competition law. It has said that it is discussing with the Commission how its search ranking works to produce the most relevant and useful search results for users. In an ironic twist, one of the complainants is Microsoft, a company that has been more used to fighting the European Commission over competition law issues over the last decade, instead of working together to stamp out alleged competition law abuses by others.