Wang-lun, Google and the #WMC16

24/02/16

Like Wang-lun, Google managed to perform three remarkable leaps lately, leaving pundits in bewildered awe.

The first was the firm’s court victory over Streetmap, the UK High Court finding that Google had not infringed the competition rules by skewing search results in favour of its own mapping product. Interestingly, the court held that Google’s was simply the better product (hark, hark…)

The second was a Great Leap Forward into yet another spotlight that Google could well have done without, namely tax evasion. The firm is negotiating its tax bill in several Member States while EU State aid proceedings are luring.

The third leap is CEO Pichai’s, all the way to Brussels this week to meet Commissioner Vestager and Commission factotum Selmayr. This leap is no doubt the most intriguing one, news of the pending antitrust investigation being scarce. Little wonder, since this case raises Gellhorn and Kovacic’s beautiful rhetorical question, “should the exercise of monopoly power be condemned even though that power was acquired solely by competitive efforts which are otherwise applauded?”.

Unlike the dominant tech players in classic EU precedents such as Racal Decca, IBM or Microsoft, Google’s position would seem due mainly if not exclusively to consumers’ free unrestricted choice. It is hard to see why enforcement action should be called for in the first place.

The Commission seems to think that Google is able to lever its market power in the search engine market into virtually any market it pleases. The firm’s lawyers table a long list of failed Google ventures. Which might well become longer while DG COMP is busy (?) with this case. Perhaps the Commission is simply following the General Court’s example of how to address claims of market development: just lean back and wait for development to happen. To quote a well-known piece of Danish wisdom: Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.

And btw, leaping seems a good strategy while the more conventional road to innovation at #MWC16 is hampered by strikes in our city’s public transport system.