The European Union is putting pressure on US tech giants such as Google, Facebook and even Apple in regards to the companies' business practices and privacy settings. According to EU officials, the European Commission is close to formally filing antitrust charges against Google, and it is also stepping up its investigation of Facebook's privacy policies.
The European Commission has been investigating Google for years. During this time, investigators have managed to collect many confidential complaints made by various European firms about the tech giant, and now the commission has begun asking for permission to go public with the testimonies.
Many experts believe that the EU will file formal antitrust charges against Google within just a few short weeks. The commission is reportedly preparing a document named Statement of Objections that is believed to be aimed at convincing Google to go for a settlement instead of making its way to court.
If Google and the Commission fail to reach an agreement, the EU could issue a series of fines and force Google to pay up to 10% of revenues from its last years, which stand at more than $6 billion. Google will have up to 30 days to respond to the charges once they are filed. If an agreement is not reached, it can appeal the verdict to Europe's higheest court.
At the heart of the investigation are allegations that Google tampered with search results to favor its own services in the results. Critics argue that most users only pay attention to the first two or three entries in the results and Google tends to highlight its services instead of those most relevant to the customer.
This isn't the first time Google has come under fire over its search results. The Federal Trade Commission in the US also found similar irregularities forcing the tech giant to make some changes in its search mechanism to stop the FTC from filing charges.
At the same time, the EU is also looking into Facebook's privacy policy. With over 300 million users in Europe, the EU is trying to determine exactly what Facebook does with the personal information it collects.
Facebook and Google aren't the only two tech giants to face scrutiny. European investigators are also looking into taxes paid by Apple and Amazon, as well as examining the agreements Apple struck with some record companies for its upcoming streaming service.
The coordinated investigation of US tech companies by the EU is rather uncharacteristic of the European bloc of countries. Normally, these investigations are slowed by the European bureaucracy, but in this case all the members of the EU seem to be on the same page.
