EU companies claim Google still abusing its Shopping power

A group of European comparison shopping service (CSS) companies say Google hasn't been true to the terms of a 2017 settlement requiring it to be more fair to competitors. The coalition now wants EU antitrust regulators to force Google's hand. The letter, addressed to EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, was signed by 43 …

[MiguelC]

Go little guys, go!

[druck]

If by little guys you mean Microsoft backing a bunch of feckless link spammers.

[MiguelC]

No, I mean little (compared to Google) local market pricing comparison companies who were well established before Google decided to pull the rug from under their feet and display it's own pricing comparison data instead.

If you really want to know who they are, instead of spouting totally unsupported nonsense, the information is here.

[druck]

Here is the original list of complainants from this very site, Microsoft amongst them.

https://www.theregister.com/2015/04/27/eu_google_antitrust_complainants/

[MiguelC]

That was about a different antitrust complaint against Google.

Wow, I couldn't believe it either, there is more than one complaint against Google.

/s

[Anonymous Coward]

Delegate

How about a simple prescriptive solution: Google puts a link top right - "Regional Shopping Collators" - which opens a page listing all the alternative shopping collators from a list specified by the EU (or your regional e-boss), in an order specified by the EU, which the EU can update daily. Also a setting which allows "shopping" to default to that page, or an additional "regional shopping-alt" button.

Hopefully, Google could save some money on lawyers/fines and invest that on more practical R&D, like AI/robotics for manufacturing.

[LybsterRoy]

If it was actual companies selling things I could sympathise, but its a load of (not really sure what to call them so) parasites who want to waste my time by listing things that either a) do not exist or b) are not what I'm actually looking for.

As a shopper, these days, if its not available locally, I ignore all the aggregators, start by looking on Amazon to get the name of what I want right then search using DDG.

Can anyone tell me just what these whingers offer that means they should get some money?

[Anonymous Coward]

The ones I use compare the prices of dozens of shops, some affiliated, but most not, and the shops' user ratings, allowing buyers to make an informed choice, pricewise and also somewhat trustwise.

[tiggity]

Well AC, please tell us the ones you use if they are actually helpful.

The few times I have tried any of these shopping helpers they often did not factor in delivery charges properly, and (even more annoying when if you are looking for an emergency replacement / repair purpose then availability beats price) showed things that, when you clicked through, were not in stock

[Daelos]

Google are guilty of a lot of shady stuff but their shopping site is way down the list of offenders.

Surely they should be going for Amazon, Ebay, Ali Express etc than for Google.

Apple have pretty much cleaned up for music purchases.

Even ASOS has more presence in my searches for stuff to buy than Google.

I don't think I've knowingly bought anything via a Google search other than actual Google stuff.