BRUSSELS: EU lawmakers likely to vote Thursday on a motion that the breakdown of Google and other Internet technology companies, increasing political pressure on antitrust regulators block to take a stronger line in the group.
Parliament has no power to dismember a company. But the vote, underlining the widespread concern among EU politicians about US dominance of the Internet industry would be an important public challenge to Google's business in Europe.
Andreas Schwab, a German Christian Democrat in the European Parliament, and the Spanish liberal Ramon Tremosa released a draft resolution last week, saying that separates the search engines other commercial services ensure equal conditions for rivals in Europe. Conservatives, liberals and socialists, who dominate a large majority of parliamentary seats, a joint motion on Tuesday resolved and expect to debate the issue in parliament on Wednesday and vote on it on Thursday said assistant Tremosa Monday.
European politicians and some competing companies have complained that Google's dominance allows it to promote their own services at the expense of their rivals and attacked him on a range of issues including tax and Privacy Policy. Google has said it regularly faces strong competition in a changing market.
Parliament's proposal to the committee, if approved, would put pressure on the new EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager EU to adopt a tougher than its predecessor in resolving complaints against Google online. Vestager's predecessor, Joaquín Almunia, held four years of research, following complaints from rivals like Microsoft. German publisher Axel Springer Group also complained of market power of Google. The European Commission has never ordered the dissolution of any company's anticompetitive practices.