Searching for harm or harming search? A look at the European Commission’s antitrust investigation against Google. CEPS Special Report No. 118/September 2015

As the European Commission’s antitrust investigation against Google approaches its final stages, its contours and likely outcome remain obscure and blurred by a plethora of nonantitrust-related arguments. At the same time, the initial focus on search neutrality as an antitrust principle seems to have been abandoned by the European Commission, in favour of a more standard allegation of ‘exclusionary abuse’, likely to generate anticompetitive foreclosure of Google’s rivals. This paper discusses search neutrality as an antitrust principle, and then comments on the current investigation based on publicly available information. The paper provides a critical assessment of the likely tests that will be used for the definition of the relevant product market, the criteria for the finding of dominance, the anticompetitive foreclosure test and the possible remedies that the European Commission might choose. Overall, and regardless of the outcome of the Google case, the paper argues that the current treatment of exclusionary abuses in Internet markets is in urgent need of a number of important clarifications, and has been in this condition for more than a decade. The hope is that the European Commission will resist the temptation to imbue the antitrust case with an emphasis and meaning that have nothing to do with antitrust (from industrial policy motives to privacy, copyright or media law arguments) and that, on the contrary, the Commission will devote its efforts to sharpening its understanding of dynamic competition in cyberspace, and the tools that should be applied in the analysis of these peculiar, fast-changing and often elusive settings.

Viva la Raza : Mexican American education, a search for identity.

"Reprints from American Education."

High energy nuclear reactions : a literature search /

The literature has been searched for references pertaining to high energy reactions of interest to nuclear chemists. Nuclear Science Abstracts was the main source of references and wherever possible the complete abstract was retained.

Hydrides of metals and metalloids : a literature search /

"July 1960 [OTI Issuance Date]."

A Paraguayan treasure: the search and the discovery.

A novel.

El Salvador, the search for peace /

"September 1981."

Bioremediation in the Field Search System (BFSS) : user documentation.

"August 1994."

Bioremediation in the Field Search System (BFSS) : user documentation.

"August 1995."

Age search information.

Item 146-A

Application of law on search and seizures to police procedures /

"A transcript of lectures and discussions relative to the law of search and seizures and its effect on law enforcement, conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office of the District of Columbia in cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, D.C."

Rubén Darío in search of insipration: Greco-Roman mythology in his stories and poetry.

Bibliography: p. 167-174.

Radioactive waste processing and disposal; a literature search.

Mode of access: Internet.

Unclassified U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reports on civilian power reactors and test reactors : a literature search /

"November 1956."

Solvent extraction of uranium : a literature search /

"March 1957."

Unclassified U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reports on reactor safety : a literature search /

"November 1956."