Tom Fairless reports:
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a resolution that calls for a possible breakup of Google Inc., brushing aside last-minute objections from the U.S. Congress that the move risked politicizing an antitrust investigation.
While the initiative has no binding power on the European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust regulator, it highlights the growing political resistance in Europe to the power of the U.S. search engine giant, which has a European market share of over 90%, far higher than its share in the U.S.
Read more on WSJ.
As Danny Hakim reports, the motivation of one of the legislators may be somewhat questionable or conflicted:
Andreas Schwab, a German member of the European Parliament, has been making headlines in the last week after drafting a resolution that calls for the breakup of Google.
But Mr. Schwab is not just a legislator, he is also “of counsel” at the German law firm CMS Hasche Sigle, which has represented some of the German publishing interests that have been most eager to declaw Google.
Read more on the New York Times.