A Sign Of Things To Come: Google Antitrust Issues In Europe

If it follows the patterns of many other antitrust probes of major US tech companies by the EU, Google (GOOG) will be in for scrutiny in major countries around the world.  The Wall Street Journal reports that “Google Inc. is set to announce later Tuesday that European antitrust authorities have opened a preliminary probe into complaints made against it by three European Internet companies.”

comScore data show that Google’s market share is high in many Western European nations. It is above 70% in the US by some measurements. The EU probe is likely to be part of an arduous, expensive process due to Google’s extraordinary success in the search engine and search advertising business. No one should be surprised if the Justice Department opens a probe.

Douglas A. McIntyre