Companies ask EU Commission to step in on Google search ranking complaint

Three companies have lodged formal claims with the EuropeanCommission that Google is acting anti-competitively. Two of thecomplaints relate to the way that it ranks web pages. TheCommission has asked Google to explain its actions.

A high ranking in Google's search engine is vital for manycompanies, particularly in Europe where the search engine is almosttotally dominant. Now three companies have alleged that the wayGoogle ranks their sites is a breach of competition law.

UK search engine Foundem claims that the methods used by Googleto determine which sites should be shown at the top of the list fora search term discriminate against it because as a search engine itis a competitor to Google. The issue is vitally important becausethose lists of search results can run into the millions ofitems.

Foundem claims that 'penalty filters' used by Google's system toroot out unwanted traffic are trained against competing firms.

"Whereas these penalties used to be reserved for spam, or sitescaught attempting to cheat Google’s algorithms, they are nowincreasingly targeted at perfectly legitimate vertical search anddirectory services," it says in a statement on its website. "It maynot be coincidence that, collectively, these services present anascent competitive threat to Google’s share of online advertisingrevenues."

Google said that a complaint from a French search engineejustice.fr "seems to echo these concerns".

"We understand how important rankings can be to websites,especially commercial ones, because a higher ranking typicallydrives higher volumes of traffic," said Google competition counselJulia Holtz. "We are also the first to admit that our search is notperfect, but it's a very hard computer science problem to crack.Imagine having to rank the 272 million possible results for apopular query like the iPod on a 14 by 12 screen computer screen injust a few milliseconds. It's a challenge we face millions of timeseach day."

"Our algorithms aim to rank first what people are most likely tofind useful and we have nothing against vertical search sites -indeed many vertical search engines like Moneysupermarket.com,Opodo and Expedia typically rank high in Google's results," saidHoltz.

The third company to make a complaint is price comparison siteCiao, which was bought by Microsoft in 2008. Google said that itworked well with Ciao until the Microsoft purchase.

"Ciao … were a long-time AdSense partner of Google's, with whomwe always had a good relationship," said Holtz. "However, afterMicrosoft acquired Ciao! in 2008 (renaming it Ciao! from Bing) westarted receiving complaints about our standard terms andconditions. They initially took their case to the Germancompetition authority, but it now has been transferred toBrussels."

The Commission, which investigates and takes action againstcompanies that break EU competition law, confirmed that it hadreceived the complaints.

"The Commission can confirm that it has received threecomplaints against Google which it is examining," said a Commissionstatement. "The Commission has not opened a formal investigationfor the time being. As is usual when the Commission receivescomplaints, it informed Google earlier this month and asked thecompany to comment on the allegations."

Holtz denied that Google's behaviour was designed to stopcompetitor sites from gaining traffic through its searchengine.

"The question [the cases] ultimately pose is whether Google isdoing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users andpartners," she said. "This is not the case. We always try to listencarefully if someone has a real concern and we work hard to put ourusers' interests first and to compete fair and square in themarket. We believe our business practices reflect thosecommitments."

Google's search engine is responsible for 91% of internetsearches worldwide, according to StatCounter figures for the past12 months, and its ubiquity has been the cause of similar legalclaims before as companies take it to task for not giving theirservices enough prominence in search results.

A child-related search engine called KinderStart sued Google inthe US, claiming that its failure to put it high enough in searchresults was an interference with the company's constitutionalrights to free speech and was anti-competitive.

"[KinderStart's] allegations are vague and ambiguous, andKinderStart makes only general claims as to the type of injury itallegedly suffered … KinderStart still has failed to identify aprovably false statement," said the ruling.