, Columnist
Google Invites Competitors. They Fail to Show Up.
European regulators’ protection arrived too late to help many would-be rivals.
Too little, too late?
Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
On Thursday, Google complied with the European Commission ruling that hit it with a 2.42 billion euro ($2.85 billion) fine and ordered it to share real estate on its search pages with rival comparison shopping services. From a customer's point of view, nothing has changed.
The historic EU decision punished Google for abusing its search dominance to push its own product-comparison service, Google Shopping. When a user searched for a product -- say, a toaster or a vacuum cleaner -- Google Shopping ads, containing thumbnail images, appeared above or next to the search results. Outside comparison services showed up in the search results, but often low down on the page or even beyond the first screen.