Google breakup resolution passed by European Parliament

There were strong indications earlier this week that the European Parliament would prefer a situation in which Google’s search would be chopped off from other divisions of the company. Today, the EU’s legislative has passed a resolution concerning the matter, with 384 legislators in favor, 174 against and 56 abstentions.

According to the resolution, “the online search market is of particular importance in ensuring competitive conditions within the digital single market”, and calls on the European Commission “to prevent any abuse in the marketing of interlinked services by operators of search engines”.

The aim is to unbundle “search engines from other commercial services”, so the resolution doesn’t refer to Google alone, but any other company that offers search services.

However, the European Parliament can not direct member states to take action; instead, the resolution serves as an indicator and stimulant that member states’ legislatives, however, can.

Source: The Wall Street Journal
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