The EU Kicks Google in the Teeth

Google dominates the world in terms of online advertising. Google has a

30 billion online advertisement industry that dominates much of the

Internet marketing campaigns. Their desire to purchase Double Click (a

European Company) to expand their operations has forced EU officials to

start thinking about anti-trust. In other words, the EU says “we don’t

trust you”.Google was not happen with the delay in their

ability to move into the EU market. Google Chairman and CEO Eric

Schmidt state, “We are obviously disappointed by the European

Commission’s decision to extent its review of our acquisition of

DoubleClick” and “We seek to avoid further delays that might put us at

a disadvantage in competing fully against Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and

other whose acquisitions in the highly competitive online advertising

market have already been approved.”The European Union is very

protective of its market and wants to encourage growth from within.

When large companies come in from the outside they risk damaging this

market and putting local businesses out of revenue. Since small, medium

and large businesses are the backbone of the EU economy Google is seen

as a risk.Few companies are subject to the second level of

scrutiny that Google is going to be subject to. Around 3 – 4% of all

companies have been subjected to further review. This means that if the

company is not seen as a potential threat it is accepted. Microsoft,

Yahoo and AOL have all moved forward with their acquisitions and this

simply “burns” Google.The fear that many in the EU as well as

the U.S. have is that with the acquisition of Double Click and Google’s

current size that they will dominate the market, become one of the

worlds largest data sources on people, and have an unfair advantage

that will put many companies out of business. This restriction in

Europe is now raising concerns in the U.S. that American authorities

will consider similar action.The power Google will amass if it

has information on just about every Internet user in the U.S. and

Europe will be amazing. People must question whether or not this

information is safe, whether it is necessary and whether or not it

constitutes a threat. Google is likely to disagree that the information

will ever be compromised or used unfairly. However, with the recent War

on Terrorism wasn’t Google a prime target of Homeland Securities

investigation requests?It appears that law is now catching up

to Internet companies and their size. For many years the Internet has

been able to outpace the law and few restrictions were applied. The

decision by the EU starts forcing both accountability and anti-trust

restrictions on Internet companies that are becoming too large. Is it a

good or a bad thing? Few people could answer a question like this.This,

of course, doesn’t mean that Google won’t be able to purchase Double

Click or any other company that it desires. However, it does mean that

their actions will fall under further scrutiny and that their actions

will be double guessed much of the way. How this affects Google no one

knows.