James Ashton: Google must be shown that it can’t simply swat away its critics

If a week is a long time in politics — and it’s certainly true as the general election campaign drags on — five years in the digital world is a lifetime. Since the European Commission decided to open an investigation into allegations that Google abused its search-engine dominance in November 2010, much has changed.

Amazon’s global sales have almost tripled, the number of tweets being sent every day has at least quadrupled and Google’s share price has risen 80 per cent. Smartphones have displaced laptops and companies that didn’t even exist — for example, Demis Hassabis’s artificial intelligence start-up, DeepMind — have been set up and sold (in DeepMind’s case, to Google) since former competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia first opened the file.

So the first reaction to news that the commission is finally moving ahead by setting out a list of charges against Google is that here is an analogue body facing the hopeless task of trying to keep pace in a fast-moving digital age. That is to take nothing away from Almunia’s successor, Margrethe Vestager, who should be congratulated for addressing this outstanding issue less than six months after taking office.

Up for discussion is not whether Google is dominant: at more than 90 per cent in some European markets, its

command of internet searching is greater than at home in the US. The matter is whether Google abuses that dominance, as first raised by Shivaun and Adam Raff, the husband and wife team who set up Bracknell-based price comparison website Foundem. The strongly-denied allegation is that Google “systematically” favoured its own shopping service over others in general search results. A second probe will look at Android, its mobile operating system.

Battling with Brussels is a rite of passage for any US tech giant. Microsoft was at war for years over whether its Windows operating system shut out alternatives and was heavily fined. International relations provide the subtext to both regulatory challenges.

America rules the internet. And as the web has shifted from PC to mobile, Europe’s early lead in handset technology has gone. Just look at the way Apple’s iPhone put Nokia to the sword. Broadly, the debate over “net neutrality” — the idea that all web traffic should be treated equally — runs along transatlantic lines for the same reason. European telecoms operators would like to charge their biggest customers extra for a “fast lane” service but American internet giants preach equality for all to keep costs down.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s favourite competition defence is that users are only a click away from using another search engine. The fact that they rarely do is neither here nor there. It is true that barriers to entry are far lower than in many other industries, and the internet crown gets passed around every five years or so. Microsoft is not the force it was, even though Windows and Office remain great cash cows.

Yet dotcoms also benefit from light-touch regulation for the most part. There is great disparity between ITV and YouTube, for example. One has the amount it can charge advertisers for airtime capped while the other can sell to the highest bidder. But both compete for the same viewers’ eyeballs.