On January 3, federal regulators for the United States government finished an almost two year investigation into Google’s practices in the country. The investigation was closed with a mild agreement being signed that has competitors of the search giant quite disappointed.
The Federal Trade Commission has stated that Google has agreed to stop “scraping” reviews and data from competitor sites to use in its own services. The technology giant will also allow advertisers that use its services to export data so that they can evaluate results on their own independently with out relying on Google’s tools.
Jon Leibowitz, the current FTC Chairman, also added that Google was also in agreement with the federal agency to license standard patents on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms”. This will benefit Apple’s iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry and devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows. The patents that are being referenced in the agreement include some that were acquired during Google’s US$12.4-billion buyout of Motorola Mobility Holdings.
Leibowitz stated that the Commission went through 9 million pages of documents and took sworn testimony from Google executives. He went on to say that, “This was an incredibly thorough and careful investigation by the Commission, and the outcome is a strong and enforceable set of agreements.”
The FTC was ready for rivals of the search engine that expected to go to the Justice Department over an expected soft conclusion to the hearing. The FTC chairman defended the regulatory body by stating that, “Even though people would like us to bring a big search bias case, the facts aren’t there.”
Microsoft claims that Google downgrades competitors on its search listings intentionally while Google claims this is not the case. The FTC has stated that there is no evidence of such activities from Google.
Source: Financial Post
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