New Wearable Technology: Goolge-Antitrust: Silicon Valley in the sights of Europe

Friday, April 3, 2015

Goolge-Antitrust: Silicon Valley in the sights of Europe – Il Sole 24 Ore

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This article was published on April 3, 2015 at 11:02.
The last change is the April 3, 2015 at 13:23.

The Antitrust European Union is ready to move against Google. And, this time, seems determined to go down hard. This was revealed by the Wall Street Journal, that the Competition Authority of the Old Continent would have ready in the drawer a fine multi-millionaire. The measure could see the light in the coming weeks.

Someone is skeptical that Google is an investigation that has dragged on for years. The dossier on the tables of the Authority circulating for five years. Observers, however, seem to all agree nell’intravvedere a decided change of pace. And if, the European judges were right, the Mountain View giant would have called for sanctions to a value equal to 10% of turnover. If we count that the company founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page has closed 2014 with $ 66 billion in revenues, the sanctions against Google we would report back in time when Microsoft in 2012 was forced to pay 1.7 billion to the European Union euro.

Unlike the Microsoft case, however, this time the game between the EU and Google could also gamble on the diplomatic level. The new Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager does not seem inclined to negotiation. Someone in the White House does not seem to appreciate the spirit that exists in Europe regulatory. A few weeks ago US President Barack Obama in an interview with R / Co had expressed some doubts on the modus operandi of European emphasizing how often the European attitude towards technological giants stars and stripes were driven more commercial intent that from another.

In the event of an unfavorable verdict some reaction from the US administration is to put in the yard, because the Federal Trade Commission of the United States in 2012, while expressing a harsh judgment against anticompetitive tactics of Google, had decided not to proceed.

This time the wind seems to have changed. Brussels wants to figure out how to curb the power of global platforms that now handle millions of information of European citizens. On the table there are not only the concerns of a cultural nature for privacy and legal protection of company data. But also the difficulty against multinationals who know how to exploit the holes in the tax systems in Europe.

Under observation there then just Google but all the big internet like Facebook, Amazon and Apple.

And the escalation is in the facts: at least six countries, reported yesterday, the Wall Street Journal, would open investigations on Facebook for violations related to the privacy of its users.

But it is the case of Apple to cause more confusion. According to the Financial Times, the European Commission would be investigating the agreements that Apple is tightening with record labels ahead of the launch of the new music streaming service.

The service, remember, has not started yet. The Antitrust ahead of the launch would have asked some Major information on the types of trade agreements proposed by Apple. This is a preliminary stage of investigation. The assumption, however, is that the proposed arrangements would cause the labels to boycott competitors, particularly Spotify and Deezer. According to a study of Midia Research the potential catchment area of Apple Beats would be about 75 million users. More than 60 million users of Spotify (15 million for the paid version) and 17 thousand members (all paying) Tidal.

Obviously, the debut of Apple in the music stream scares.