Google Responds to European Union Antitrust Charges

By Sam Schechner And Natalia Drozdiak 

BRUSSELS-- Google Inc. on Thursday rebuffed the European Union's demand that it change the way it ranks online comparison-shopping services in its search results, setting up a potentially drawn-out legal battle between the search giant and a regulator empowered to levy billions of euros in fines.

In a formal response Thursday to antitrust charges the EU filed this spring against the California company, Google said it has argued the bloc's antitrust regulators erred in their analysis of the fast-changing online-shopping business, misconstrued Google's impact on rival shopping-comparison services, and failed to properly back up their legal claims.

In particular, the company argues that the EU's charges--detailed in a document called a Statement of Objections, or SO--fail to take into account the fast growth of companies like Amazon.com Inc. and eBay Inc. Google executives have said these firms pose a new competitive threat, which undermines the case that Google has harmed comparison-shopping companies like Nextag and LeGuide.

"We believe that the SO's preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter fact, law and economics," Google general counsel Kent Walker said in a written statement.

Google also argues that asking it to make changes to the way it ranks comparison-shopping sites would require legal justifications the EU doesn't have.

By taking aim at the overall framing of the EU's case, Google is setting the stage for a potentially drawn-out legal challenge. The case already stretches back to 2010, and has led to three tentative settlements that were later scuttled.

The continuing tussle could thrust Google's operations in Europe, its largest single market, into legal limbo for years to come, though opponents say it could serve as a delay tactic for a firm to cement its position.

Write to Sam Schechner at [e-mail] and Natalia Drozdiak at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2015 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.