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Google Listed on Agenda for Senate Antitrust Subcommittee

Google, the Mountain View, California-based search giant, seems to always be the focus of one antitrust probe or another, whether for its many acquisitions of companies in different sectors or for its general dominance of the US search market.  Now it appears as if the US Senate has set its sights on the company.

Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisc), the reigning Chairman of the Senate's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, announced the group's agenda Friday for the 112th Congress.  Included in those plans is an investigation into Google's dominance of the search market and “allegations raised by e-commerce websites that compete with Google that they are being treated unfairly in search ranking, and in their ability to purchase search advertising.”

Those allegations are presumably from members of the online travel industry and the “FairSearch” consortium they have formed to try and stop the ITA acquisition.  Below is the section of Senator Kohl's release that pertains to the Google probe.


Competition in Online Markets/Internet Search Issues
Access to the wealth of information and e-commerce on the Internet is essential for consumers and business alike. As the Internet continues to grow in importance to the national economy, businesses and consumers, the Subcommittee will strive to ensure that this sector remains competitive, that Internet search is fair to its users and customers, advertisers have sufficient choices, and that consumers’ privacy is guarded. In recent years, the dominance over Internet search of the world’s largest search engine, Google, has increased and Google has increasingly sought to acquire e-commerce sites in myriad businesses. In this regard, we will closely examine allegations raised by e-commerce websites that compete with Google that they are being treated unfairly in search ranking, and in their ability to purchase search advertising. We also will continue to closely examine the impact of further acquisitions in this sector.

At this point, the issue is solely an agenda item for the subcommittee, and no antitrust hearings have been scheduled, but insiders feel that if the issue does reach that point, the probe would entail far more than just the ITA acquisition.