Europe is an Antitrust Outlier

Europe is an Antitrust Outlier

By Thomas Lenard

Published in The Hill on April 27, 2016

Last week, the Canadian Competition Bureau concluded a multiyear antitrust investigation of Google after finding that the company had not engaged in anticompetitive behavior. The FTC had earlier reached a similar conclusion. Apparently, these findings do not faze the European Commission, which is going full speed in the opposite direction and adding to its list of charges against the internet search giant. The international coordination of antitrust enforcement still has a ways to go — and Europe is an outlier.

The new case announced last week targets Google’s Android operating system. According to European Commissioner for Competition Policy, Margrethe Vestager, “Google’s behavior denies consumers a wider choice of mobile apps and services and stands in the way of innovation by other players.”

Her assertion flies in the face of all the evidence.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/277800-europe-is-an-antitrust-outlier

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