European Parliament backs breaking up Google
European Parliament's non-binding resolution encourages unbundling search engines from other commercial services
ANKARA
European Parliament members backed Thursday a non-binding resolution to break up Google and other large tech companies operating in the European Union's area.
The move aimed to encourage unbundling search engines from other commercial services.
The resolution was approved by 384 votes to 174, with 56 abstentions. The European Parliament has no power to actually enforce such a measure, but it encourages regulators to take a stronger stance against the companies.
Google has avoided getting caught up in antitrust cases that have been largely aimed at search engines and advertising companies.
The resolution proposed from Andreas Schwab, a German Christian Democrat, and Ramon Tremosa, a Spanish liberal, says that “the digital single market could generate an additional €260 billion a year for the EU economy, as well as boosting its competitiveness.”
The resolution warns that important challenges, such as market fragmentation, lack of interoperability as well as regional and demographic inequalities in access to the technology need to be tackled in order to unlock this potential.
The text says that “the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market.”
It also welcomed the European Commission’s pledges to investigate further into the search engines’ practices.
Google remains the world’s most popular searching engine, far ahead of competitors such as Baidu, Yahoo, Yandex, Microsoft, etc.
The European Parliament also urged member states to start negotiations on the telecoms package, so as to “put an end to roaming charges inside the EU, provide more legal certainty as regards to net neutrality and improve consumer protection.”
