Google Inc. lost its bid to postpone the proceedings in a London antitrust case until the resolution of a European Union investigation was finished. The corporation that filed the UK lawsuit was favoured with the decision.
In a ruling held on July 26, Judge Peter Roth told Google to give Foundem the documents that were related to four out of five allegations in the court case. Google, the Mountain View, California-based company, argued that postponing the lawsuit would enable the European Commission to find data that would negate some of the claims of Foundem.
Foundem was a shopping comparison website that filed a complaint to the regulators of EU. It is currently a member of ICOMP, a Brussels-headquartered industry coalition that involves Microsoft Corp., owner of the search engine Bing. Foundem said that Google stifled innovation for the vertical search services. The antitrust investigation started almost three years ago. EU investigated if it was true that the biggest search engine in the world discriminated against competitors in its search results.
Delaying the disclosure until after a concluding decision by the EU "and potential appeals, would cause several years' delay," Roth stated.
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