Roughly nine months after Google's parent company Alphabet was slapped with a 2.4 billion euro fine for "abusing its dominance in search," Brussels bureaucrats are reportedly preparing to take things a step further and unleash Europe-wide regulations for search engines and other online platforms and apps. According to the Financial Times, which broke the story, the regulations are meant to protect companies that rely on Google, Apple or Amazon to sell their services or products.
European policymakers have been exploring ways to target "harmful" trade practices as many small firms in the region have complained that tech behemoths like Google have skewed search results to favor its own services over the services of its competitors. The issue has so far been left for members states to deal with. Of the largest European states, France has distinguished itself as among the most aggressive in trying to push back against the US-domiciled tech giants and their allegedly anti-competitive tendencies.
The regulations are also notable in that they represent the most stringent rules governing search engines' behavior by a developed Western power.
Case in point: Earlier today, the French government warned that it could take legal action against Google and Apple over their "abusive" business practices.
"I believe in an economy based on justice and I will take Google and Apple before the Paris Commercial Court for abusive business practices" against French start-ups, said French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on a local radio program.
"I consider that Google and Apple, as powerful as they are, shouldn't treat our start-ups and our developers in the way they do today," said Le Maire, calling the situation "unacceptable".
The news didn't have much of an impact on shares of Google, Apple or their megacap-tech brethren.
The EU’s strike against what it refers to as "online intermediation services" was delayed in December so it could be tweaked to cover search engines, according to the FT, which obtained a draft of the regulations.
"Online intermediation services can hold superior bargaining power over their business users, enabling them to behave unilaterally in a way that is capable of harming the businesses using them," the draft says, adding that search engine rankings are also potentially unfair and capable of causing economically significant harm."
Under the new rules, tech companies would be required to supply companies with more information about how their ranking algorithms work. They also would need to provide a formal complaint to any company or app if Google decides to demote or de-list them from its search results.
While these regulations have reportedly been in the works for months - and aren't entirely unexpected - the timing of Wednesday's leak is notable. Given that a draft of the rules was quietly leaked to the FT, it could be construed as a tacit warning to the US: The European Union has more than one way to respond to US protectionism.
Comments
VPN - cheap as chips
DuckDuckgo
The inflation adjusted GDP growth of every country in the world since 2000:
http://thesoundingline.com/ranking-worlds-economic-growth-21st-century-…
The Eurozone has been nearly the worst performing economy in the entire world
In reply to VPN DuckDuckgo by Thom Paine
Can we regulate search engines so results are always positive, only good news? I need that.
In reply to The inflation adjusted GDP… by Four Star
So..Juncker wants in now eh?
In reply to Can we regulate search… by Oldwood
You prefer lies to truth?
In reply to Can we regulate search… by Oldwood
EU Preparing To Unleash First-Ever Regulations Targeting Search Engines
My response: INTERNET BILL OF RIGHTS it the only regulation we need. EU can GO POUND SALT!!!!!
In reply to VPN DuckDuckgo by Thom Paine
Duck Duck Go...
In reply to EU Preparing To Unleash… by GUS100CORRINA
Who needs a search engine when every page is big brother?
In reply to Duck Duck Go... by El Oregonian
Duck Duck Go Suck Suck So
In reply to Duck Duck Go... by El Oregonian
Startpage.com and Startmail.com
In reply to Duck Duck Go... by El Oregonian
And whemn youre done askin massa for moar there SKY coin.
In reply to EU Preparing To Unleash… by GUS100CORRINA
all I ever use... Duck Duck Go
In reply to VPN DuckDuckgo by Thom Paine
" companies would be required to supply companies with more information "
uhh.., what?
And if you are worried about being hacked...surf the net using a Virtual Machine - free software out there for that.
I installed one years ago on my gaming rig. Don't use that much these days.
In reply to And if you are worried about… by Thom Paine
You're not safe there either. The VM could leak information for host machine and vice versa, depending what you're using.
In reply to And if you are worried about… by Thom Paine
WebRTC leak control
Click&Clean
DuckDuck go privacy essentials.
js only allowed for approved sites
VPN
VPN and computer time zone set to same.
and on a VM
- about as much as the average person can go I think.
The only identifier then is Browser Finger print - the uniqueness of how your browser is set up, add-ons etc.
In reply to You're not safe there either… by opsyn
And remember the early days.....Bots searching out news and
Usenets
Tech never ceases to amaze me. I grew up with a landline phone and 3 TV channels. We had a stereo and AM/FM radio was big. Kasey Kasoms Countdown is what I listened to on Sunday night with a little Radio Shack radio.
In reply to And remember the early days… by Thom Paine
American Top 40 eeeeeee
I remember listening to that on weekends here when I was a kid
In reply to Tech never ceases to amaze… by HRH of Aquitaine 2.0
Im making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do, ====http://www.todaysfox.com
In reply to And remember the early days… by Thom Paine
It had to come down to socialist vs socialist when they were the only remaining powers.
It was pretty cool today as they had Lauren Southern speak, today, about being held on terrorist charges and deported after being denied entry to the U.K.
In reply to It had to come down to… by wisehiney
script search
39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
I remember using the 'Net' (if you could call it that then) before even Mosaic and any other browsers,
Bulletin Board, phone muffs, handshake and a TRS-80
In reply to I remember using the 'Net' … by Thom Paine
Sorry, proprietary algos are a trade secret. And BTW we can ban your whole country from our network if you keep pissing us off.
The Fourth Reich wants control so you can only see Reich approved material
That's all we see now, anyways.
In reply to The Fourth Reich wants… by OutaTime43
Theresa May's 'Novichok' Claims Fall Further Apart
The British government claims that 'Novichok' poisons, developed 30 years ago in the Soviet Union, affected a British double agent. Such substances may not exits at all.
The 'whistleblower' for the 'Novichok' program and poisons published some chemical formulas that should enable any decent laboratory to reproduce them. But neither the existence of the claimed program nor the existence of the alleged substances were ever accepted by the scientific community.
The highly constructed drama around the alleged poisoning of a British double agent Skripal and his daughter has thus turned into a surreal play. The British government has so far given no evidence that the Skripal's were poisoned at all, or were poisoned by someone else. No detailed medical bulletin was published. The British accusations against Russia lets one assume that a suicide attempt has been excluded. Why?
There is no independent evaluation of the alleged poison. The British government claims that its own chemical weapon laboratory at Porton Down, only a few miles from where the incident happened, has identified the poison as one of the 'Novichok' chemicals.
But in 2016 a leading chemist at Porton Down published a piece in a scientific journal that denied that such chemicals exist. (Tim Hayword and Craig Murray both point this out):
By now everyone knows that everytime you search something you will get pretty much the same websites. It never used to be like that.
So, Google definitely did something. It used to be that many great Alternative news sites would come up with their articles. I never see them anymore.
I do everything I can to NEVER click on the trashy mainstream sites that I always get....CNN, ABC, and so on. Or "ehow" or "answer"...blah blah blah.
For Zero Hedge articles, I must tag the search with Zero Hedge.
Beats the in house search by miles.
Use the right tags to get the information you want.
On Tablets, there is no hope that I can see for improvement.
You should see the crap that comes up on Ipad and Android platforms.
Very bad, so sad.
In reply to By now everyone knows that… by headless blogger
.
"Google's parent company Alphabet was slapped with a 2.4 billion euro fine"
Why would a CIA front company pay a fine to a european body???!!!
Kinda weird if you ask me...
Where's a good anti-trust law suit when u need one?
We are not ok here in Europe. From a dead canary.
www.canarydeath.com