EU antitrust regulators announce a preliminary investigation against Google’s data collection practices

Google has been under scrutiny by the EU antitrust regulators more than ever in the past two years. Over 40 European companies accused Google’s parent company, Alphabet, last week of being biased for its price comparison shopping service. Owing to a joint complaint in writing to the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, European Competition Commissioner, announced on Saturday that Google is under investigation for its data collection practices.

Google Has Been Fined Over €8 Billion Euros In The Past 2 Years For Its Business Practices

Google has been fined heavily by the commissioner in the past two years. The most popular search engine has been ordered multiple times to revisit its business practices with a fine of over 8 billion Euros in two years to motivate such change. As per the complaint by European competitors, however, Alphabet Inc. has been ignorant of such orders.

In an attempt to ensure users’ safety and privacy, it is turning into a standard for the competition enforcers to keep a good eye on how businesses collect, monetise, and use data. The ongoing investigation against Google is also targeted at getting a deeper insight into the data collection practices.

As per the EU executive, the preliminary investigation has already started against Google with detailed questionnaires been sent to the American multinational technology company. The questionnaire, he added, revolves around a deeper understanding of how Google collects data and the rationale behind it.

The European Commission has also revealed that it intends to scrutinize data concerning online ad targeting services, local search services, web browsers, online advertising, login services, etc. In a response, Google has already stated that the only purpose of collecting data is to improve their services for the users and cater them to the user preferences. It further commented that the company leaves it to the users’ discretion to manage data. Users can choose to transfer or even delete their data as they please.

Alphabet Inc. Performance In The Stock Market In 2019

Despite the huge fines and ongoing investigations against Google, Alphabet has managed to perform exceptionally in the stock market in 2019. Having started the year at around $1,054, share prices registered a year-to-date high of $1,333 earlier in November. The stock is currently trading at $1,304. According to the stock market analysts, the recent high also marks the highest level for Alphabet in history. On Friday before market close, Google, however, noted a slight decline from the daily high of $1,309.68 to $1,303.97. Although, in the after-hours trading, the stock had regained to around $1,305 level.