【必赢3003am】谷歌面临欧盟反垄断诉讼 或步微软后尘

London—The European Commission is said to be planning to charge Google with using its dominant position in online search to favor the company’s own services over others, in what would be one of the biggest antitrust cases here since regulators went after Microsoft.伦敦——据信，欧盟委员会(European Commission)计划就谷歌(Google)利用它在网络搜寻方面的主导地位，指责谷歌自身服务的作法驳回诉讼。这可能会沦为监管机关对微软公司(Microsoft)采取行动以来，欧洲规模仅次于的反垄断案之一。Europe’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, is expected to make an announcement in Brussels on Wednesday that Google has abused its dominant position, according to two people who spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.两名知情人士周二在电子邮件的前提下透漏，欧盟的市场竞争负责人玛格丽特·韦斯塔格尔(Margrethe Vestager)将于周三在布鲁塞尔发表声明，称之为谷歌欺诈了主导地位。

The decision to push ahead with a so-called statement of objections is the latest twist in the lengthy investigation into Google’s activities in Europe, where it holds a roughly 90 percent share in the region’s search market. If Europe is successful in making its case, the American tech giant could face a huge fine and be forced to alter its business practices to give smaller competitors like Yelp greater prominence in its search queries.采取行动公开发表所谓的异议声明(statement of objections)的要求，在谷歌的欧洲业务受到的漫长调查中，是近期的一步巨变。在欧洲，谷歌大约占到搜寻市场90%的份额。如果欧洲控告顺利，这家美国科技巨头就将面对巨额罚款，而且还将不得不调整其商业操作者，在其搜寻结果中将Yelp等规模较小的竞争对手呈现出在更加明显的方位。

A representative for Google declined to comment on any potential action by the European authorities. But in an internal memo to employees, first obtained by the technology news site Re/code, the company said it expected the commission to file a statement of objections about how the company displays search results, particularly for shopping. It also expected the authorities to open an investigation into Android, the Google software that runs a majority of the world’s smartphones.谷歌的一名代表拒绝接受就欧盟有可能采行的行动公开发表评论。但科技新闻网站Re/code年所获得的一份谷歌发送给员工的内部备忘录表明，谷歌回应该公司指出，欧盟委员会将不会公开发表一份异议声明，牵涉到谷歌排序搜寻结果的方式，特别是在是有关购物的搜素结果。

该公司还指出，欧盟委员会将对谷歌的Android软件开展调查，世界上大多数智能手机用于的都是Android系统。“We have a very strong case, with especially good arguments when it comes to better services for users and increased competition,” the memo said. “All told, consumers have a lot of choice — and they are exercising it. And many, many other companies have very successful mobile businesses — including Apple, the most valuable (mobile) company in the world.”“我们胜算相当大，尤其在为用户获取更佳的服务，以及增进竞争方面，我们有十分好的论据，”备忘录表明。

“总之，消费者有很多自由选择，而他们都在行使选择权。很多、很多公司都有十分顺利的移动业务，比如苹果公司(Apple)——世界上市值最低的（移动）公司。”It is still unclear what specific accusations Ms. Vestager plans to include in the charges against Google. But the pressure the company faces in Europe is just one of the regulatory problems that American tech giants like Amazon, Facebook and Apple are facing across the 28-member bloc.目前仍不确切韦斯塔格尔计划对谷歌明确提出哪些明确的指控。

但该公司在欧洲所面对的难题，只是亚马逊(Amazon)、Facebook和苹果等美国科技巨头，在这个由28个国家构成的政治联盟里，面对的诸多监管难题之一。Europe’s antitrust officials have already opened investigations into whether Apple and Amazon received preferential treatment in their low-tax arrangements — Apple in Ireland and Amazon in Luxembourg. In addition, privacy watchdogs across the region are asking whether companies like Facebook have securely protected people’s online data. Policy makers are also investigating whether American Internet platforms like Amazon have too much control over how Europeans gain access to online services.欧洲反垄断官员已在调查苹果和亚马逊在其洗钱决定中否获得了礼遇，其中苹果公司是在爱尔兰，亚马逊在卢森堡。此外，欧洲各地的隐私监察的组织也在猜测Facebook等公司未能对人们的在线数据展开可信维护。政策制定者正在调查亚马逊等美国互联网平台，看它们否对欧洲人的网络服务提供包含了过多的掌控。

European lawmakers have said that these inquiries are not specifically aimed at American tech companies, though many industry executives say they are aimed at helping European tech companies, which have so far been unable to rival their much larger United States competitors.欧洲立法者们称之为这些调查并非专门针对美国科技公司，不过许多业内高管指出，把他们当作目标是为了协助欧洲的科技公司，这些公司迄今为止还无法跟规模可观得多的美国公司抗衡。The investigation against Google has already dragged on for nearly five years at the European Commission without formal charges or a negotiated settlement. That has prompted criticism that the region’s most important antitrust enforcer has been too easy on Google.欧盟委员会对谷歌的调查早已持续宽约将近5年，至今没月控告，也没达成协议妥协。有人因此谴责这个欧洲地区最重要的反垄断执法人员机构对谷歌过分客气。

Europe’s main focus of investigation is whether Google has abused its search engine’s large market share by favoring its own products. The search engine is more dominant in Europe than in the United States, where competitors like Microsoft’s Bing have a sizable market share.欧洲的调查主要注目谷歌否欺诈其搜索引擎的极大市场份额，让自己的产品取得优势。谷歌搜索引擎在欧洲的统治者地位要低过在美国，后者还不存在微软公司的合于(Bing)等竞争对手，占有了非常一部分市场。

Ms. Vestager, a Danish politician who took over as the European Union’s top antitrust official in November, is scheduled to travel to Washington later this week, where she is expected to meet senior justice officials and participate in antitrust conferences.11月接替欧盟最低反垄断官员的丹麦政治人物韦斯塔格尔计划在本周晚些时候前往华盛顿，她在那里应当会见一些高级司法官员，并参与反垄断会议。More than two dozen companies and organizations have filed antitrust complaints in Europe against Google. Many are in Germany, where powerful publishing groups and online firms have called on the European regulator to stop the American search giant from blocking competition in sectors like online mapping, travel services and shopping.在欧洲早已有数十家公司和机构滋扰谷歌独占，其中许多来自德国，那里的一些强劲的出版发行集团和网络公司向欧洲监管机构敦促，制止这家美国搜索引擎巨头在网络地图、旅行服务和购物等领域阻扰竞争的不道德。“The E.U. competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, will decide what steps they want to go,” Günther Oettinger, a German politician who is charge of Europe’s digital economy, told Die Welt am Sonntag, a German newspaper, on Sunday. “I think that they will be far-reaching.”“欧盟竞争委员玛格丽特·韦斯塔格尔不会要求他们将采行那些措施，”分管欧洲数码经济的德国政治人物金特·厄廷格(Günther Oettinger)周日对德国报纸《周日世界报》(Die Welt am Sonntag)说道。

“我指出涉及措施不会产生深远影响。”If Google fails to rebut any formal charges, Ms. Vestager could levy a fine that could exceed 6 billion euros, or $6.4 billion — about 10 percent of Google’s most recent annual revenue. But the largest single fine yet levied in such a case falls well short of that mark: The record is 1.1 billion in 2009 against Intel for abusing its dominance of the computer chip market.如果谷歌无法驳斥任何月指控，维斯塔格尔可以对其判处多达60亿欧元（约合396亿元人民币）的罚款——大约是谷歌最近一年的年收入的10%。

不过此类案件目前为止作出过的最高额罚款相比之下高于这个数字：目前的纪录是2009年刷新的，当时英特尔(Intel)因欺诈电脑芯片市场绝对优势地位被罚11亿欧元。The commission previously spent years reining in Microsoft, which accrued a total of almost 2 billion in European fines over a decade, including a penalty in 2013 for failing to adhere to an earlier settlement.此前，欧盟委员会曾花费数年时间对微软公司加以控制，令其这家公司在10年里积累向欧洲缴纳了将近20亿欧元的罚款，还包括在2013年因没能遵守较早前的一份妥协协议而罚。

Google still could settle the matter. But whatever the search giant might negotiate with the commission, analysts say, the deal will have a greater impact on its business than previous attempts to settle. Ms. Vestager’s predecessor, Joaquín Almunia, gave Google three opportunities to make concessions that were aimed at allowing the company to escape both a fine and a formal finding of wrongdoing.谷歌仍然未来将会达成协议妥协。然而分析人士说道，不管搜寻巨头跟委员会如何协商，这一次的协议对其业务的影响，都将多达此前的几次妥协希望。

维斯塔格尔的前任华金·阿尔穆尼亚(Joaquín Almunia)曾给了谷歌三次让步的机会，目的让该公司脱逃一项罚款和一项月的不法行为判决。Those settlement efforts repeatedly ran afoul of Google’s rivals, including American companies like Microsoft and Yelp, which successfully complained that most of the changes proposed by Google have been insufficient to solve the antitrust concerns identified by regulators.这些妥协希望大大地引发谷歌的竞争对手的异议，其中还包括微软公司和Yelp等美国公司，它们诉称谷歌明确提出的改动足以解决问题监管机构确认的反垄断问题，并最后获得成功。

“Everyone should have equal treatment,” said Thomas Vinje, a lawyer for FairSearch Europe, which represents Google rivals. “Google should apply its own algorithm fairly to everything, including its own services.”“每个人都应当获得公平对待，”谷歌竞争对手的代理律师、公平搜寻的组织(FairSearch)欧洲分支机构的托马斯·维尼亚(Thomas Vinje)说道。“谷歌的算法应当对所有东西一视同仁，还包括它自己的服务。

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