News Business Google faces up to image problem in Europe

Google faces up to image problem in Europe

Amsterdam: As Google bowed to a European court ruling to consider users' claims to remove embarrassing search results, the company took the first step toward preventing any more such punishing decisions - acknowledging it has


CEO Page told the FT the company is "trying now to be more European" and will think about privacy in "a more European context."

"A very significant amount of time is going to be spent in Europe talking," he said.

That means putting money where the company thinks more mouths should be.

Shortly after the ruling, Google posted a raft of help-wanted ads seeking "bright, well-organized and spirited individuals to work with a stellar team on cutting edge technology issues" at its offices in Berlin, Rome, London and Brussels.

The job? Lobbying.

"You will handle our various product agendas with policy makers inside and outside government," reads one ad in Berlin.

The company has room to expand efforts to get its view heard. Google employed seven lobbyists in Brussels in 2013, according to voluntary disclosure figures, and spent around 1.5 million euros (currently worth $2 million). By comparison, Microsoft employed 16 and spent 4.75 million euros.

In Washington D.C., Google outspent Microsoft $14 million to $10.5 million.

Mario Marinello, an economist at the European policy think-tank Bruegel, said he thinks Google can settle its antitrust case with the European Commission by arguing its search results are what consumers want, even if the company's competitors are frustrated by the company's dominance.

"I don't want to defend Google," he said. But "all this lobbying has kind of shifted the question to a very superficial level, which is dangerous."

For Google, it is not clear whether lobbying alone will be enough.

Activist Faith Bosworth of a German group known as Peng Collective said Google has been a media darling for too long.

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