Google split put to European vote this week

EU lawmakers will likely vote on Thursday on a motion proposing the split of Google and other internet technology companies, increasing political pressure on the 28 nation bloc’s antitrust regulators to take a stronger line.

The European Parliament building.
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The parliament has no power to dismember a firm. But the vote, underlining widespread concern among EU politicians about American dominance of the internet industry, would be a significant public challenge to Google's business in Europe.

Andreas Schwab, a German christian democrat lawmaker at the European Parliament, and Spanish liberal Ramon Tremosa unveiled a draft of their resolution last week, saying separating search engines from other commercial services would ensure a level playing field for rivals in Europe.

The conservatives, liberals and socialists, who command a large majority of the parliamentary seats, will develop a joint motion tomorrow and expect to debate the issue in parliament on Wednesday and vote on it on Thursday European time.

European politicians and some competing companies have complained that Google's dominance allows it to promote its own services at rivals' expense, and attacked it on a range of issues including its tax and privacy policies.

Google has regularly said it faces fierce competition in a constantly-changing market.

The parliament's proposal to the commission, if passed, would put pressure on new EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager to take a tougher line than her predecessor in resolving complaints against Google.

Vestager's predecessor, Joaquin Almunia, held four years of investigations, triggered by complaints from rivals including Microsoft. German publishing group Axel Springer has also complained about Google's market power.

The European commission has never ordered the split of any company for anti-competitive practices.

Kurt Lauk, the head of the pro-business wing of Germany's conservative party CDU, which is also Schwab's party, criticised the proposal to break up Google.

"Instead of exploiting the opportunities of the web, some lawmakers in the European Parliament are nursing their phobias," he told Saturday's edition of German paper Handelsblatt.

"Threatening Google and other large internet companies who are in fierce competition with each other, is a loser's debate," Lauk was quoted as saying.