With pressures mounting around Google’s mode of operation especially in Europe, the company had been called and fined many times as well as told to adjust its model to allow for smaller companies to thrive but with that, the company seems to have its own way of dealing with such issue.
Recently some documents regarding Alphabet’s Google’s parent company regarding its tactics on how to deal with the EU got leaked online and now the company’s senior executive, Sundar Pichai has issued an apology to the EU’s Industry chief Thierry Breton over the alleged leaked documents.
In the leaked document, Google is said to be proposing a countermeasure to battle the strict EU rules on internet companies (including Google).
According to a Gadgets360 report, the senior executive from Google and Breton interacted in a video conference earlier this month, which was the third conference in 2020.
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This call arrived had both sides discuss a Google internal document, which defined a 60 day strategy against the European Union, who is pushing for stricter rules. The search giant planned on involving US based allies to push back against Brenton. Prior to the leak, the call had been initiated by Google, with Brenton later bringing up the leaked document during the conference to show it to Pichai.
In an interview, Chief Breton made it known that he wasn’t surprised about the issue and neither was he naïve. He furthered that the move is old-fashioned. “In any case, yes I had a discussion with Sundar… I told him what I had to tell him….he apologized. (I told him) If you need to tell me something, my door will always be open.” Apparently, Pichai apologized and also added that he had no prior knowledge of the document and it has yet to be sanctioned either.
Brenton believes that “The Internet cannot remain a ‘Wild West’: we need clear and transparent rules, a predictable environment and balanced rights and obligations.” In other words, the two had an open conversation regarding the matter, with Pichai saying that he would approach Brenton directly regarding any policy that mentions Google directly. Notably, Brenton is set to announce new draft rules known as the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act together with European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on 2nd December 2020.
