US lawmakers are now weighing in heavily against the motion currently going through the European Parliament which would advise breaking up Google.
Google execs are known to be "furious" at the EU's idea that the search giant — which has a 90% market share in Europe — is a monopoly that needs to be split apart.
The letter from Washington politicians is the biggest sideswipe yet against the EU proposals, with senior cross-party figures from both the House and Senate lining up to give the EU a kicking. The Financial Times has published some clips from the letter:
A joint letter from the Republican and Democrat leadership of the Senate finance committee and House ways and means committee said “proposals that seem to target US technology companies” raised questions “about the EU’s commitment to open markets”.
“This and similar proposals build walls rather than bridges [and] do not appear to give full consideration to the negative effect such policies may have on the broader US-EU trade relationship,” wrote senators Ron Wyden and Orrin Hatch and congressmen Dave Camo and Sander Levin.
According to the FT, the chairman of the House of Representatives' judiciary committee also warned against "encouraging antitrust enforcement efforts that appear to be motivated by politics". The letter comes less than a day after the US mission to the EU warned the European bloc not to politicise the probe.
The references to politicisation are probably referring to the EU's tax complaints about Google and other companies. The suggestion that the online giant should be split aren't officially motivated by that, and are to do with allegations that its search engine is too dominant — but US lawmakers seem pretty sceptical.
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