Over 20 EU job portals accuse Google of anti-competitive practices

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

A new battlefield has opened for Google in the European Union, in relation to search engine practices that can be interpreted as abuse of dominant position; in this case, by the widget that enables for job seekers. Twenty-three portals specialized in job offers have sent a letter to the EU Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, in which they ask to investigate Google and, in the meantime, order the temporary stoppage of these practices, which they understand as anti-competitive.

The Reuters agency has had access to the text of the letter, in which the signatories defend that Google's behavior has leveraged its job search tool, an aggregator of openings positioned as a widget at the top of the search, to filter out competition at their own expense. They understand that this positioning is illegal and that Google is using its domain to attract users without the need for traditional investments made in marketing.

The applicants posit that specific data is being provided to the search engine so that these companies are totally bypassed. Current measures, they say, are not enough to guarantee equal treatment among competitors.

Vestager itself would be interested in the topic of Google's job search engine. The commissioner plans to leave office on October 31, but as revealed by a person familiar with the news agency, Vestager is preparing an intensive transfer of information related to the matter so that his successor is still pending the issue. At the moment, since Competition no official comments have been made on the matter.

From Google Nick Zakrasek, Senior Product Manager of the search engine, has defended in a statement to the agency that "any provider, from individual employers to job application platforms, can use this function in the search, and many of them have seen an increase significant in the number of job applications they receive."

"By improving the job search experience, we can deliver more traffic to the portals through the web and support a healthy job search ecosystem," Zakrasek adds.

Google sanctions in the EU

This letter opens a new front between the already lively battles between the regulatory authorities of the European Union and Google, along with other technology giants. Last March the European Commission imposed a sanction on the search engine of 1.4 million euros after the enterprise was accused of violating the antitrust rules by imposing a series of restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites - conditions that limited its rivals in the publication of their search ads on these websites.

This fine was the third that the European Commission imposed on Google in less than two years. In July 2018, the corporation faced a historic penalty of 4.3 million euros for abuse of the dominant position of its Android operating system. Before, in June 2017, a 2.4 million euros fine was imposed for favoring its own products in the Google Shopping search engine.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

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