After 19 months of investigation, political maneuvering, lobbying and intense speculation the FTC has closed its antitrust investigation of Google. The outcome is almost exactly as we reported yesterday and it's probably legally correct. Google comes away largely unscathed from the process. Once can hear the celebrations getting started in Mountain View. The settlement has three components. Henceforth there will be no involuntary scraping of third party content for inclusion in "specialized" (vertical) Google search results (the Yelp case). Google will also enable easier exporting of AdW [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Google: Web Search | Legal: Regulation | Top News

Much is already known about the contours of the likely antitrust settlement between Google and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The terms of the settlement were previously "leaked" (intentionally or otherwise) a couple of weeks ago and critics quickly berated the FTC as having "rolled over." Broadly speaking, the rumors were that Google would make certain "voluntary changes" and avoid a consent decree (mostly) or any formal finding of antitrust violations. The settlement was supposedly to be announced in mid-to-late December but was delayed amid harsh criticism the FTC received follow [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation

Confirming a report from the New York Post last week, the Wall Street Journal and Politico both published articles that said Google would emerge basically unscathed from the FTC's antitrust investigation. Google will apparently agree to make voluntary changes to various practices and will thus avoid having to sign a consent degree. The voluntary actions, according to the articles, would involve limiting use of third party content in some of Google's services (e.g., restaurant reviews) and to make it easier for AdWords campaigns to be transferred to competing platforms (i.e., adCenter). G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation

According to a report in Computerworld, Google has violated German data protection and privacy rules with its new Google Maps app for the iPhone. When users install the app and agree to the terms and conditions there's a check box that authorizes Google to collect "anonymous" user location data. The fact that this box is an opt-out (rather than an opt-in) violates German privacy regulations, which require "informed consent" where personal data collection is involved. The fix is obviously easy for Google: simply uncheck the box as the default. Yet the likelihood that people will op [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Regulation

The New York Post is reporting that relatively soon, possibly as early as next week, the FTC is scheduled to announce a settlement of its antitrust investigation and potential claims against Google. The Post says that settlement will substantially let Google off the hook: Federal regulators are expected to close a year-long probe of Google’s search business without finding any antitrust violations, The Post has learned. The Federal Trade Commission is expected to announce before the end of the year that Google’s search engine did not cause any consumer harm or favor its own businesses, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Regulation

Bing has been escalating its attacks against Google Shopping over consumer transparency since launching its "Scroogled" campaign just over a week ago. Well, consumer confusion is a serious issue. Indeed, Bing itself can be used to illustrate some of the problems consumers face at both Bing and Google. The day after Bing's campaign launched, I found the full-page ad to the right in my copy of the Wall Street Journal. A similar ad apparently ran in the New York Times. Meanwhile, at least one blogger has gotten a "Scroogled" t-shirt, and the official Bing blog has done two further anti-Goo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | Features: Analysis | Google: Product Search | Legal: Regulation | Microsoft: Bing Shopping & Cashback | Top News

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the top two US and European antitrust regulators will meet in Europe next week to compare notes and discuss potential outcomes. Both are negotiating with Google to settle antitrust claims that would avoid formal legal action. The FTC's Chairman Jon Leibowitz will meet with the EU's Joaquin Almunia. The claims against Google on both sides of the Atlantic are similar, though not identical. In addition, European and American antitrust laws are different though they express the same overarching principles. The WSJ reported that any concessions made [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Legal: Regulation | Top News

Bing is attacking Google over its shift to a pay-for-play shopping search engine through a new "Scroogled" site, pledging that Bing has "honest search." Great campaign, if it were true. It's not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of. It's also another indictment of how little the FTC is doing to protect consumers from "search results" they might not realize are ads. Google Shopping Goes All-Ads Earlier this year, Google changed to a "paid inclusion" or pay-to-play model of accepting listings for its Google Shopping site. Phased in over the summer, as of October 17, only merc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Google: Product Search | Legal: Regulation | Microsoft: Bing Shopping & Cashback | Top News

Google CEO Larry Page met with representatives of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday, according to a Bloomberg report, as the company engages in antitrust-settlement talks to avert potential litigation. The article also says that formal settlement discussions have been going on for about a week. The Bloomberg piece also reports that the FTC "has told Google it won’t accept a resolution short of a consent decree." However Google doesn't want this outcome apparently because of the ongoing enforcement authority it would grant the agency. Neither Google nor the FTC truly want [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: General | Legal: Regulation

There are now enough indications to suggest that any antitrust settlement between the FTC and Google -- and the FTC would much prefer to settle than test its case  in court -- won't involve "vertical search." An earlier Reuters report, probably resulting from an internal FTC leak, suggested that vertical search wasn't the core of the agency's case against Google. Today Bloomberg is reporting that the FTC is "wavering" on whether to pursue a formal action against Google. In particular the agency's own people (anonymous sources) suggest they can't make the "vertical search bias" claim stick [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: General | Legal: Regulation | Top News

The French government is digging in its heels. After a meeting today with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, French President Francois Hollande reiterated the government's plans to create a new law to force Google to pay when it links to newspaper websites. The spat has been going on for a few weeks, since the French government first proposed a law that would require search engines to pay to link to content. After the original back and forth, plans were made for today's meeting in Paris. As Reuters is reporting, President Hollande didn't back down. The president reiterated that F [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Google: News | Google: Outside US | Legal: Regulation

Earlier this month Google, which past French president Jacques Chirac once called an agent of "Anglo-Saxon cultural Imperialism," threatened to stop linking to French news websites after French publishers and the French government floated a proposal to require the search engine to license their content. Current French President Francois Hollande's government is essentially seeking to tax Google to help support or subsidize the country's ailing newspaper industry. Google has vigorously opposed the notion of paying to index and link to news sites as a threat to the company's "very existence [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Critics | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Regulation

Last week there was a report that "four out of five FTC commissioners" favored going forward with an antitrust case against Google. The Reuters article in which the claim appeared mentions but doesn't emphasize the litany of "vertical search" complaints against Google raised by competitors. Those "Google favors its own results" claims have been at the center of the European antitrust inquiry and, perhaps until now, at the heart of any potential US case against Google. Yet the article seems to suggest that the FTC is looking elsewhere for Google liability  -- or vulnerability. Reuters wr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features: Analysis | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Legal: Patents | Legal: Regulation

According to SEMPO, a search marketing industry association, the US Federal Trade Commission is "strongly considering" a review of how well -- or poorly -- search engines are compliance with its 2002 guidelines on disclosing paid listings to consumers. The news comes in a letter that SEMPO -- the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization -- sent to the FTC today offering its assistance in drafting new guidelines or examining the current state. From the opening of the letter: We understand that the FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau is now looking closely at the issue of search labe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Legal: Regulation | Top News

Reuters is reporting that majority of those on the US Federal Trade Commission believe an antitrust case should be brought against Google. But if action comes, it doesn't seem likely to involve Google being found to "favor" its own "vertical" search engines like local or shopping over competing ones. Apparently four of the five FTC commissioners are now convinced that "Google illegally used its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals." Another commissioner is not similarly convinced. The identities of the commissioners in favor of the action against Mountain View were not reveale [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation | Top News

The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation has written to the major US search engines of Google, Yahoo and Bing asking them to examine how some moving services are using "bait-and-switch" tactics on customers who find them through search results. Moving Ripoffs Each search engine received the same letter, covering how a committee investigation found that consumers are doing searches for topics relating to moving services and encountering companies with names that seem similar to large, reputable brands. Consumers pay what they believe to be a moving deposit but [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: SEO | Legal: Regulation | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Top News | Yahoo: SEO

In the roughly two years since Google launched flight search and hotel search, Kayak CEO Steve Hafner says, "We haven't seen any impact on our business." This statement, made in a CNBC interview, would appear to directly contradict the central claim of the lobbying group to which Kayak belongs, FairSearch.org. The central claim is that there's "growing evidence that Google is abusing its search monopoly to thwart competition." FairSearch says that Google's ability to "send traffic to its own [vertical] properties," such as flight search or hotel search, gives the company an unfair advantage [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation | Top News

Speaking at an antitrust symposium sponsored by Georgetown Law School in Washington DC, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said that the commission was "on track" to decide on whether or not to pursue an antitrust case against Google "by the end of the year." In other words: after the election -- not that a decision would necessarily have an impact one way or the other. However, if the FTC were to bring a case before November it might be used as fodder for the critique that Washington is trying to get in the way of "job creating industries." Leibowitz is quoted by the NY Times saying at the even [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation

If I were a betting person I'd say that the European Commission and FTC antitrust investigations against Google will wrap up without any major "structural" changes or dramatic new rules imposed on the company. Indeed there were premature reports that Google had already settled with the EU. An announcement of some sort is imminent I suspect. In the US a number of legal scholars (both independent and sponsored by Google) have come forward to argue that under the current antitrust framework Google would potentially win any case brought by the feds. In addition a new FTC nominee disfavors antit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Android | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation

As the FTC considers whether to brand Google a "monopoly" and initiate an antitrust action against the company, it appears new FTC nominee Joshua Wright, a law professor from George Mason University, is not among those who favor it. In addition to being nominated by President Obama, Wright is supported by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Politico points out that "Wright is also listed as a senior adjunct fellow for TechFreedom, a think tank that Google has listed as among the groups at which it sponsors policy fellows." Wright has also written reports and blog posts arguing the cas [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Antitrust | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation