Break Google into bits, says EU

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The European Parliament today voted to ask Google to break itself up to bring an end to a long-running dispute about whether its huge market share is a problem.

While the vote has no formal power, it could encourage the new EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager to look at the search giant more critically.

The vote has drawn ire from the US, with politicians and other bodies objecting to the vote.

Google’s rivals lodged a complaint about the company’s size and domination of the market, and the case is still ongoing.

The search giant has a 90% market share in Europe, and rivals have asked that the EU look into issues including the way that Google displays results for its own services, as opposed to its competitors.

Breaking search apart from the company’s commercial services could help settle the case, according to the politicians who proposed the motion.

The resolution was approved 384-174, with 56 people abstaining.

The move is the second time the EU has taken on Google in as many days. Yesterday, it told the search engine that the ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling that allows people to ask the site to delete results should be applied across the world, not just on domains within Europe.