It’s been an active year for Google, with the announcement of a major restructuring along with the creation of the new Alphabet umbrella company, and while there’s been a lot of reasons for Google to be excited about the future, not everything is rosy. The European Union, earlier this year, launched a pretty sizeable antitrust campaign against Google, citing anti-competitive practices regarding Google Shopping and how they recommend search results, among other things. Google recently came out and levelled an accusation of their own at the European Union Commission, saying that the claims were simply “wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics.”
Things are about to get a little bit worse for Google, as Reuters is reporting that a U.S. based firm, is to ‘pile on’ Google, joining the EU and pursuing claims against the internet giant. The firm, Hausfeld, which specializes in class-action suits, has started a campaign that it’s calling “Google Redress & Integrity Platform (GRIP)”. GRIP is designed to offer “corporations, consumers and other entities harmed by Google’s anti-competitive business practices in Europe a mechanism to evaluate their potential claims” according to Michael Hausfeld, Chairman of the firm. Joining Hausfeld will be Avisa Partner, a PR firm that’s handling 1plusV’s EU complaint against Google. The two will manage GRIP together.
As of right now, it’s unclear just how much of an impact GRIP will have, but it’s certainly not good news for Google. The EU antitrust investigation might seem baseless to both Google and a number of onlookers, but with a U.S. firm like Hausfeld joining the fray, it’ll certainly add to Google’s headaches and we’re sure a company that’s looking ahead to the future could do without further scrutiny over their past. Either way, Google will have to deal with these antitrust complaints for a long time to come, and even though the outcome will likely to be a token fine, it all goes towards smearing Google’s name throughout Europe.