It doesn’t matter that eBay and Google are competitors in many areas, eBay is still standing behind Google for the European Commission’s anti-trust probe into the company. The European Union believes Google is using its search power to favor its own shopping products, despite the fact that Google and even many of its competitors such as eBay claim that this isn’t true.
Despite their competitive differences, eBay has got Google’s back in the European Commission’s antitrust probe. EBay chief John Donahoe told the Financial Times that EU needs to develop a better understanding of consumers’ online shopping habits. The EU recently accused Google of abusing its search power, saying that the Web giant favors its own shopping products, known as Google Shopping, in search results, and demotes those of its competitors. Pointing to rivals, Google argued that competition in search is “thriving,” even citing mobile assistants like Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana. “In addition, there are a ton of specialized services like Amazon, Idealo, Le Guide, Expedia, or eBay,” Google said at the time. Donahoe agreed, telling the FT that, “Yes … We are a strong commerce competitor” of Google’s. The paper had no further direct quotes from Donahoe about the case. Neither Google nor eBay immediately responded to PCMag’s request for comment.