OFT: Google isn't harming consumers

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 25 Nov 2009 at 07:39

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) says it has no plans to challenge Google's dominance of the search market because it isn't harming consumers.

Google accounts for almost 90% of the search traffic in the UK, according to the latest figures from monitoring firm Hitwise. However, the chief executive of the OFT says there's no evidence that its monopoly-sized share of the market is doing any damage to consumers.

"Where a company has achieved that position by superior innovation, foresight and better targeting of customers, we're very wary of intervening," John Fingleton told a select committee of MPs, according to a report in The Guardian.

While lots of people have talked to us about harm to competitors, nobody has articulated to us harm to customers

"Thus far, while lots of people have talked to us about harm to competitors, nobody has articulated to us harm to customers or related companies in this market."

"We see a lot of customers benefit from what's happening in this marketplace from very high innovation – it's good for the British economy. We don't want to send a negative signal about that."

The declaration comes as Google faces increased scrutiny over its stranglehold on the search market. Newspaper groups, led by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, are threatening to boycott the search engine, after accusing Google of "stealing their content". Earlier this week it was suggested that the Microsoft-owned Bing would even consider paying publishers to delist from Google.

Google is also facing regulator scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic concerning its plans to digitise millions of books. Google has been forced to redraft its plans to fend off antitrust and copyright concerns.