Google still wants to avoid the obligation to share search data with competitors and is appealing a ruling from last summer.
In early September, the ‘monopoly lawsuit’ against Google came to a (provisional) conclusion. As expected, Google will not simply accept the ruling. On Friday, Google officially filed an appeal with the court, Reuters reports.
Google is objecting to one specific measure that was imposed on it. The company will be required to share search data from its search engine with competitors. With that search data, competitors can build stronger products to threaten Google’s search dominance, to the extent that that is still possible now.
Partial resistance
Google believes that measure goes too far. It is requesting a temporary suspension until the appeal is heard, because ‘the company risks exposing trade secrets without the possibility of getting them back’. Google does not appear to be opposed to other parts of the verdict, such as restrictions on imposing its applications on Android manufacturers. Google maintains tight control over the mobile ecosystem in other ways.
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That does not mean that Google agrees with it. “Although Google believes that these measures are unjustified and should never have been imposed, the company is willing to do everything except transfer its data or provide syndicated results and advertisements while the appeal is pending,” the company said.
The ruling was not bad for Google, however. The main prize, a sale of Chrome, was not achieved. Google’s competitors fear that the lawsuit will be no more than a storm in a teacup and will do little to change Google’s internet dominance.