US Lawmakers Against Europe’s Google Break-Up Plan

Last week, the European Union’s Parliament called for Google to be broken up into separate businesses to curb the company’s internet monopoly. Now, US lawmakers have made their opposition to the idea very clear. According to the Financial Times last night, “Capitol Hill hit back at EU lawmakers on Tuesday for politicizing an antitrust investigation into Google, as tensions rose ahead of a European parliamentary vote calling for the possible break-up the technology group.”

The pointed letter from US lawmakers to their EU counterparts asks them to “consider proposals with the aim of unbundling search engines from other commercial services.” The resolution should pass in the European Parliament on Thursday, but it still needs to be ratified by the executive branch of the EU, the European Commission, to become law.

“Search engines like Google should not be allowed to use their market power to push forward other commercial activities of the same company,” one member of European Parliament said in support of the proposal.

Source: ars technica