European Business Environment issues

Concerns about taxes and competition in Europe


Concerns about taxes and competition relating to American companies' business practices in Europe have recently come under scrutiny. While Facebook was punished by violating antitrust laws in relation to the takeover service of WhatsApp, Apple is battling a demand from the Irish government that would have it pay $14.7 billion in taxes (Akademie, 2017). Following the $2.7 billion sentence that demands the internet giant to alter its conduct within 30 days, the trend of non-compliance with safe practice in the European environment has led to Google being the victim of circumstance.

Google accused of unfair competition


Google was accused of depriving "consumers of a meaningful choice" by using the platform to manipulate them unfairly to shopping on its platform. It meant that when a customer decided to search to buy a particular equipment, they would be directed to the Google stores in the first pages of the search results while the competing businesses in the European market region would be placed in areas where the customer hardly reached. It means that Google had abused dominance of the search engine by establishing its own shopping service and in the process ensured that it creates an unfair advantage. Google is illegally promoting its businesses by creating price comparisons for product searches and it denying the customers the real choice they need to make an informed decision. Furthermore, the rival businesses have been denied the chance to compete with Google on an even playing ground as Google has ensured only its affiliates are shown in the top search engine results (Boffey, 2017).

Google's response and impact


Google's immediate response was to reject the commission's findings and signaled the desire to appeal the case. Google responded by asserting that it had entered the shopping comparison market in 2004 when it introduced the service called Froogle that enable the customers to exercise choice in the process of comparing products and prices on online searches. It was, however, found to be untrue because an analysis 1.7 billion searches have since established that Google's search algorithm has been consistently unfair and gives placement to its own service while impacting negatively on the rival services (Kottasová, 2017). True to their word, the European business environment has suffered dwindling returns on sales, and further drops in traffic to the rival websites as Google dominance became apparent. There has been a reduction in traffic in the UK by as much as 85 percent, 92 percent in Germany while France has witnessed a reduction by 80 percent in the traffic on its shopping sites. The reality has resulted in the EU regulator making inquiries into the manner in which the American tech giant could have breached the business operations in Europe by creating an unfair advantage. Inquiries have been made on the way the company could have abused its position as pertains the provision of maps, images and in giving varied forms of information on the local services. Meanwhile, the EU has given Google 90 days to change its operation and unfair business practice within Europe (Boffey, 2017).

Conclusion


In summary, it is noted that Google, like many other US firms, has been in confrontation the with EU. The tech giant has been accused of unfair competition where it would direct customers to its own sites and in the process disadvantaged the rival business in Europe. Considering the 90-day ultimatum and the fact that Google is being investigated for possible breach in other sectors, it is interesting to see how it will respond in future.


References

Akademie, D. (2017). EU slaps Google with record fine. DW. Retrieved from http://www.dw.com/en/eu-slaps-google-with-record-fine/a-39432877

Boffey, D. (2017). Google fined record €2.4bn by EU over search engine results. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/27/google-braces-for-record-breaking-1bn-fine-from-eu

Kottasová, I. (2017). EU slaps Google with record $2.7 billion fine. CNN. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/27/technology/business/google-eu-antitrust-fine/index.html

Deadline is approaching?

Wait no more. Let us write you an essay from scratch

Receive Paper In 3 Hours
Calculate the Price
275 words
First order 15%
Total Price:
$38.07 $38.07
Calculating ellipsis
Hire an expert
This discount is valid only for orders of new customer and with the total more than 25$
This sample could have been used by your fellow student... Get your own unique essay on any topic and submit it by the deadline.

Find Out the Cost of Your Paper

Get Price