Google Accused of Competition Abuse in Holiday Rentals by 34 Companies

Google has been accused of unfairly promoting its own holiday rental search engine by more than 30 of its rivals, one of whom has filed an official complaint to the European Commission. A letter to the EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager, signed by 34 companies, including HomeToGo, TripAdvisor, Expedia and eDreams and seen by the FT, accuses Google of harming rivals by elevating its own holiday rental search box.

One of the companies that signed the letter has also filed a 67-page complaint to the commission, fleshing out the accusations further. The company, which asked not to be named, claimed that Google is granting its own service “for free” the sort of display space that it charges other holiday search engines for. It alleged that Google’s own service is also not bound by the same page ranking criteria that it applies to others.