UK Vs. Google Lawsuit Delayed

A British lawsuit against Google, over alleged abuse of its dominant market position has been postponed, after a judge said it was “inappropriate” to hold the trial while the European Commission was pursuing its anti-trust case.

A High Court trial “between Infederation, the operator of Foundem.co.uk, and Google, has been postponed until July 2016 after the court received two confidential letters from the Commission which gave an update on the state of their investigation,” The Register reports, citing Court News UK.

As we reported earlier, a three-year anti-trust probe into Google by European Union regulators is coming to an end.

The search engine giant has been accused of abusing its position as Europe’s largest search engine, promoting search results that are in its own interests.

A complaint was issued in 2010 by smaller companies claiming that Google was demoting them in search results in favour of its own services that were in direct competition with these companies. Google is by far the most dominant search engine in Europe, accounting for over 90 per cent of all online search queries.

Earlier this month Google was given an ultimatum by Joaquin Almunia, the head of the European Commission’s antitrust unit.

Almunia told the search engine giant that it had one “last opportunity” to sort out the accusations brought against it.

Under European law, national courts cannot give judgments that could conflict with future decisions of the European Court, which is why the trial is likely to be delayed until the anti-trust investigation and related appeals have concluded in Luxembourg.