Europe’s love hate affair with Google

THE Europeans have Google squarely in its sights, threatening to break up with company. All because people love it too much.

The company logo is displayed at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California 10/11/2010.

THE European Parliament is debating whether to call for the break-up of internet giant Google in a symbolic resolution that has nevertheless worried the United States.

MEPs assembled in Strasbourg were set to debate a resolution calling on the EU to order search engines to separate commercial services from their businesses to ensure a level playing field. While Google is not directly mentioned in the proposal, the California-based search engine is clearly the target.

A vote on the resolution is to take place Thursday.

In a statement, the US mission to the European Union said it had “noted with concern” the parliament resolution.

“It is important that the process of identifying competitive harms and potential remedies be based on objective and impartial findings and not be politicised,” a spokesman for the US mission said.

The European Parliament has no power to launch the break-up of Google, but the move by two senior politicians is further indication that opinion of the company in Europe has soured. Google has become an increasing source of worry for European officials on many issues ranging from privacy to the protection of national publishers.

While EU law cannot directly affect US law it can however affect Google’s business in Europe, where it is even more widely used than in the United States.

Since 2010, Google has been under investigation by the European Commission in response to complaints that its search engine, the world’s biggest, was squeezing out competitors in Europe.

Google and Brussels have also clashed over the so-called “right to be forgotten”, in which the EU’s top court ruled last year that people had a right to ask search engines to delete results involving them after a period of time.

Originally published as Europe’s love hate affair with Google