Google appears to be in hot waters after being accused of favoriting its own job search program.
The search engine giant recently received an antitrust complaint that had been filed by another leading archrival for online job searches in Denmark called Jobindex.
The firm alleged that the Alphabet-owned business was using unfair means to tackle the market featuring those on the urge to find jobs conveniently and at a fast pace. And that’s why it felt the need to take up the grievances to regulators at the EU.
Therefore, this new complaint could lead to the EU chief further tightening its tough scrutiny of the company’s leading service which is called Google for Jobs. And while the chief stated a while back that she was looking into the matter, there is yet to be any action being taken from her side.
For now, we have news from the European Commission about how it would be busy assessing the complaints as per standard and routine protocol. Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note how the complaint from Jobindex comes exactly four years after we witnessed a similar complaint be generated by Stepstone. The latter is a German-based media house.
When you actually come to think of it, Google has not had the best of relations with the EU’s antitrust chief. To be more specific, let’s dig down deep into history to see what we really mean.
To date, Google has been fined a staggering amount of funds totaling nearly $8.4 billion, after being found guilty of conducting numerous faults in the area of anti-competitive behavior. But Google has always stood by one saying. And that is how it always works side by side with different partners like job providers who assist in showing people how they can secure jobs through websites posting job listings that best suit their preferences.
Meanwhile, one spokesperson for the search engine giant was recently heard mentioning how it never restricts anyone from taking part, whether the job provide is a small-scale business or a large-scale one. Therefore, the company continues to see a huge amount of traffic with relevant job matches that arise thanks to this functionality.
But that does not mean the complaints about Google aren’t plenty. In 2019, up to 23 different search websites whose sole goal was to provide online jobs to various individuals, had accused Google of using its influence in the market as a powerful push to promote its Google For Jobs service in Europe.
As a result, the companies united to blame Google for their massive drop in market share, thanks to the tech giant’s massive influence in the online market.
But how exactly did Google manage to do that? Well, a deep-down analysis has revealed how Google adds various service links for different types of job openings by accumulating them from various employers. Therefore, in this way, different people are able to filter out their due preferences, save them, and then opt to get alerts regarding the openings.
Moreover, Google even goes as far as putting a widget tool towards the top of the search page so that it can carry out regular searches on the web too.
But now, Jobindex does not seem to be backing down with its allegations which it believes has resulted in a huge portion of the Danish market being shifted Google’s way, thanks to its anti-competitive behavior.
Surprisingly, there is evidence to prove how Jobindex had the Danish job market at its fingertips at the time that Google for Jobs was launched in Europe. But it didn’t take long for the Alphabet-owned firm to take that all away in no time.
In just one year, 20% of Danish job traffic was lost to the search engine giant’s inferior service. But Jobindex is not stopping there. They are even speaking about how they’ve got proof about Google freeriding by using the firm’s own ads for jobs. According to them, the idea was stolen without any permission and further copied and then marketed as an integral part of Google for Jobs, with assistance from business partners linked with Jobindex.
Other than that, Jobindex has also highlighted plenty of privacy risks related to those applying for jobs and other clients as well.
H/T: Reuters
Read next: Google Is Working On New Upgrades For Its Core Search App Where People Can Annotate The Real World
The search engine giant recently received an antitrust complaint that had been filed by another leading archrival for online job searches in Denmark called Jobindex.
The firm alleged that the Alphabet-owned business was using unfair means to tackle the market featuring those on the urge to find jobs conveniently and at a fast pace. And that’s why it felt the need to take up the grievances to regulators at the EU.
Therefore, this new complaint could lead to the EU chief further tightening its tough scrutiny of the company’s leading service which is called Google for Jobs. And while the chief stated a while back that she was looking into the matter, there is yet to be any action being taken from her side.
For now, we have news from the European Commission about how it would be busy assessing the complaints as per standard and routine protocol. Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note how the complaint from Jobindex comes exactly four years after we witnessed a similar complaint be generated by Stepstone. The latter is a German-based media house.
When you actually come to think of it, Google has not had the best of relations with the EU’s antitrust chief. To be more specific, let’s dig down deep into history to see what we really mean.
To date, Google has been fined a staggering amount of funds totaling nearly $8.4 billion, after being found guilty of conducting numerous faults in the area of anti-competitive behavior. But Google has always stood by one saying. And that is how it always works side by side with different partners like job providers who assist in showing people how they can secure jobs through websites posting job listings that best suit their preferences.
Meanwhile, one spokesperson for the search engine giant was recently heard mentioning how it never restricts anyone from taking part, whether the job provide is a small-scale business or a large-scale one. Therefore, the company continues to see a huge amount of traffic with relevant job matches that arise thanks to this functionality.
But that does not mean the complaints about Google aren’t plenty. In 2019, up to 23 different search websites whose sole goal was to provide online jobs to various individuals, had accused Google of using its influence in the market as a powerful push to promote its Google For Jobs service in Europe.
As a result, the companies united to blame Google for their massive drop in market share, thanks to the tech giant’s massive influence in the online market.
But how exactly did Google manage to do that? Well, a deep-down analysis has revealed how Google adds various service links for different types of job openings by accumulating them from various employers. Therefore, in this way, different people are able to filter out their due preferences, save them, and then opt to get alerts regarding the openings.
Moreover, Google even goes as far as putting a widget tool towards the top of the search page so that it can carry out regular searches on the web too.
But now, Jobindex does not seem to be backing down with its allegations which it believes has resulted in a huge portion of the Danish market being shifted Google’s way, thanks to its anti-competitive behavior.
Surprisingly, there is evidence to prove how Jobindex had the Danish job market at its fingertips at the time that Google for Jobs was launched in Europe. But it didn’t take long for the Alphabet-owned firm to take that all away in no time.
In just one year, 20% of Danish job traffic was lost to the search engine giant’s inferior service. But Jobindex is not stopping there. They are even speaking about how they’ve got proof about Google freeriding by using the firm’s own ads for jobs. According to them, the idea was stolen without any permission and further copied and then marketed as an integral part of Google for Jobs, with assistance from business partners linked with Jobindex.
Other than that, Jobindex has also highlighted plenty of privacy risks related to those applying for jobs and other clients as well.
H/T: Reuters
Read next: Google Is Working On New Upgrades For Its Core Search App Where People Can Annotate The Real World
