Google attacks EU over DoubleClick

GOOGLE has gone on the front foot in a bid to have its proposed US$3.1 billion takeover of internet advertising firm DoubleClick approved by the European Union, attacking the EU over its handling of the acquisition.

Reports from Europe say the company is deeply unhappy that members of the European Parliament are trying to have privacy issues around the handling of personal information considered by EU competition regulators.

Google maintains privacy and information handling issues are not the purview of competition regulators, and are an entirely separate issue.

The US regulator, the Federal Trade Commission, approved the deal in December after more than six months of consideration.

At that time, Google chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt said the FTC ruling sent a clear message that the proposed takeover posed no risk to competition.

The company is clearly miffed that some European parliamentarians, together with privacy advocates, are pushing privacy and information handling issues into the competition deliberations.

Reports from Europe say the privacy advocate contend that the volumes of data collected by Google routinely as part of its business gave the company a competitive advantage, and that privacy and competition could not be separated as issues.

After a European Parliament hearing to consider the impact of the internet on personal privacy issues heard from a series of privacy advocates, Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer went on the attack, according to wire reports.

“People (are) trying to take a privacy case and shoehorn it into a competition law review ... I can understand that people continue to peddle this theory in Europe after having lost in the United States,” Mr Fleischer said.

In its decision, the FTC said in a written opinion that privacy concerns played no role in its merger review.

At the time, Google’s Mr Schmidt acknowledged the FTC opinion, but added that Google was committed to user privacy.

“For us, privacy does not begin or end with our purchase of DoubleClick,” Mr Schmidt said. “We have been protecting our users' privacy since our inception, and will continue to innovate in how we safeguard their information and maintain their trust.”

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FTC chair attacked over DoubleClick

TWO high-profile privacy advocacy groups have accused US chair of the US Federal Trade Commission of having a conflict on interest in reviewing Google’s planned acquisition of online advertising firm DoubleClick.

The Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) and the Centre for Digital Democracy (CDD) called on FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras to recuse herself from the Google/DoubleClick review because of her husband’s involvement in the issue.

In a submission to the commission, the groups complain that DoubleClick has retained a Washington law firm in which Ms Platt Majoras’ husband is a partner to represent it before the FTC.

The submission further complains that Deborah Platt Majoras was also an equity partner in the law firm prior to become FTC chairwoman.

The law firm, Jones Day, is advising DoubleClick on its US$3.1 billion proposed acquision by Google. The companies would combine DoubleClick ad serving technology with Google’s search and cookie expertise.

“While at Jones Day, (Ms Platt Majoras) represented clients on civil and criminal antitrust litigation matters, including mergers and acquisitions, monopolization, price-fixing, distribution issues, and governmental investigations,” a biography on the FTC web site says.

Reports in the US say Ms Platt Majoras is consulting with the FTC’s ethics officer to see whether she should recuse herself from the review.

“As the Chairman of the Commission has previously recused herself in similar matters for similar reasons where there was a lesser conflict of interest, it is clear that she must recuse herself here,” EPIC and CDD said it the submission to the FTC.

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