Clock still running on Google antitrust charges, official says

Google still has time to respond to antitrust allegations leveled by the European Union’s competition regulators, an official said Wednesday.

Margrethe Vestager, the top antitrust official for the EU, said that Google still has time to respond to the charges. The company had ten weeks starting in April to respond, but Vestager said the deadline was calculated based on when the company got access to files crucial to the case.

{mosads}“Actually, the deadline is still running, counting from the day when Google had access to the file,” she said. “You know, of course, that one of the most important things in a company’s right to defense is access to the file of evidence that we hold against them and from that date, the deadline is still running.”

The regulators said in April that Google favors its own comparison shopping site over others in search results, which they say is especially dangerous because Google is the dominant search engine in Europe. Google disputes the competition charges.

“While Google may be the most used search engine, people can now find and access information in numerous different ways — and allegations of harm, for consumers and competitors, have proved to be wide of the mark,” the company said in a blog post the day the charges were announced.

Google could ultimately face billions of euros in fines because of the charges. Microsoft paid $2.3 billion in fines related to an EU antitrust case that was initiated in 2000.