September 09, 2014
The NYT tolds readers that Google is the victim of a European backlash against U.S. technological dominance. In addition to anti-trust and privacy issues being raised with regard to Google, the piece also notes that Apple and Amazon are being investigated for their tax practices, taxi drivers have protested against Uber, and Facebook is being investigated for anti-trust violations.
It’s not clear that any of this amounts to an anti-American backlash. Apple and Amazon constantly face tax issues in the United States as well. Taxi drivers in the United States have protested Uber. And it would not be surprising if both Facebook and Google face anti-trust issues here as well.
But the last two paragraphs go furthest to undermine the European backlash story:
“Then there is Microsoft, Google’s longtime nemesis, which spends three times as much in Europe on lobbying and similar efforts. ICOMP, a Microsoft-backed group, has long targeted Google.
“‘Google is clearly in the cross hairs,’ said David Wood, a London-based partner at Gibson, Dunn, one of Microsoft’s law firms, and legal counsel at ICOMP. ‘A lot of the aura has faded, and the shine has come off, and people don’t think they’re the good guy anymore.'”
Companies often try to use government regulation to hamper their competitors. It is not clear that anything about the actions against Google reflect the “European backlash” promised in the headline as opposed to the sort of opposition that any large company would likely face regardless of the country in which its headquarters are located.
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