Google Finally Responds To Europe's Antitrust Charges

[AditiArora]

EVER since Europe’s competition commissioner filed formal antitrust charges against Google’s shopping service on April 15th, it had been clear to observers that Google would not back down without a fight. After being granted an extension that nearly doubled the standard amount of time given to companies to reply, Google today issued its response to the commission. It is not subtle: “We believe that the [commission’s] preliminary conclusions are wrong as a matter of fact, law and economics,” writes Kent Walker, Google’s general counsel. (Disclosure: Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, sits on the board of The Economist's parent company.)