Tag Archives: European Commission
European Commission Insists That Google Settles Investigation
It has been about 18 months since the European Commission started the investigation of Google’s search practices. The European Commission has found 4 areas of concern where they believe that Google may be exploiting their market dominance. The four areas of concern were laid out by European Commission VP of Competition Policy Joaquín Almunia.
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Categories European Commission, Google, Joaquin Almunia
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Apple Files Complaint With EU Accusing Motorola Of Violating Fair Terms On Patents
Motorola Mobility said that Apple has filed a complaint with the European Union against them accusing the company of violating a pledge to license industry-standard patents on fair terms. Motorola was notified about the complaint by the European Commission. However Motorola Mobility spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said that the company is willing to negotiate a patent license with Apple.
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European Regulators Wants Google To Halt New Privacy Policy
European regulators have written to Google asking them to halt the introduction of their new privacy policy. The European regulators said that they need to investigate whether the proposals are sufficiently protecting the personal data of their users.
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Categories Al Verney, European Commission, Google
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European Union Now Investigating Book Publishers and Apple on Price Fixing
The European Commission has launched an investigation into the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iBookstore. They are checking to see whether Apple and a group of international publishers are fixing e-book prices. They are checking to see if Apple and the book publishers are violating antitrust rules. The 5 publishers include Livre, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck.
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European Commission Investigating Facebook’s Advertising Platform [OP-ED]
The European Commission is starting an investigation about the way that Facebook gathers information from users such as political opinions and religious beliefs and sends it to advertisers. Supposedly a new European Commission Directive will be introduced in January and will ban targeted advertising unless users specifically allow it. This seems unreasonable to me because targeted advertising seems to be the way that every Internet company makes their money.
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Categories European Commission, Facebook
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European Commission Fines 6 LCD Companies For Price-Fixing
The European Commission is hitting six LCD companies with a fine that adds up to $857 million for price-fixing. The 6 companies being hit with the fines are Samsung, LG, AU Optronics, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Chimei InnoLux, and HannStar Display. These companies operated a cartel between October 2001 and February 2006.
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Google Being Investigated By European Commission Over Search Penalty
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is being investigated by The European Commission as part of an anti-trust inquiry. Three companies alleged that Google’s search functions were penalizing their own businesses. The European Commission sent Google a set of questions about how their search functions work and they are also being asked how their ad business works. The three websites Foundem, Ciao, and ejustice.fr complained about Google to the Commission. Ciao is owned by Microsoft.
“Google has always used various penalty filters to remove certain sites entirely from its search results or place them so far down the rankings that they will never be found,” stated Foundem in a blog post last August. “Whereas these penalties used to be reserved for spam, or sites caught attempting to cheat Google’s algorithms, they are now increasingly targeted at perfectly legitimate vertical search and directory services.” [Telegraph via Techmeme]
Categories Ciao, ejustice.fr, European Commission, Foundem, Google, Microsoft Corporation
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Nvidia Claims Intel Has Unfair Pricing After EU Ruling
In less than a few days after Intel was fined for having unfair prices and for giving rebates to PC makers by the European Union, Nvidia decided to give their opinion on the chip maker company. The European Union decided to investigate Intel after AMD filed a report against them.
Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of Nvidia said that Intel chip pricing was unfair but said that they are not planning to file an antitrust action lawsuit against Intel for now. Intel sells Atom chips for $45 for a single unit, but sells three-chip sets for $25. The extremely discounted price for bulk units lures customers away from AMD. “That seems pretty unfair,” stated Huang. “We ought to be able to compete and serve that market.”
“We compete fairly. We do not force bundles on any computer makers and customers can purchase Atom individually or as part of the bundle,” responded Intel spokesman Bill Calder. “If you want to purchase the chip set, obviously there is better pricing.”
[via Reuters]
Categories Bill Calder, European Commission, European Union, Intel, Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA
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European Government May Impose Massive Fine On Intel
The European government may impose a massive fine on chipmaker Intel Corporation. The size of the penalty will be discussed amongst 27 government agencies in Europe. The European governments began their investigation when Advanced Micro Devices filed a complaint against Intel.
The European commission charged Intel with abusing its dominant position by giving large rebates to computer makers to stay with them, even beyond the actual cost of chips.
One of the most largest fines paid due to a ruling by the European commission is Microsoft. Microsoft was forced to pay $663 million for abusing dominance in a market as well. According to the New York Times, the fine imposed on Intel may even reach $1.3 billion.
Categories Advanced Micro Devices Inc., AMD, European Commission, Intel
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