Yet, the linchpin of the EU "case" against Google, if it can be called that, is that Google gave pride of place to its own shopping service when displaying search results.
True enough. But as Abbott notes, "This is akin to saying that Kroger (KR) or Wal-Mart (WMT) harm competition when they give favorable shelf space displays to their house brands. That's ridiculous."
He's right. If anything, the EU's attack on Google — and on Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple and Microsoft (MSFT) before them — is a transparent attack on the U.S.' world-leading tech industry, which the EU can't match, and our prosperity. Instead of reforming its own socialistic and outdated industrial policies, it instead hobbles its competitors with unwarranted and possibly illegal intrusions on companies' rights to their own patents and to run their own businesses as they see fit. That European companies can't compete is their own problem.
http://www.investors.com/politics/ed...ch-innovation/
We’re tempted to suggest a conspiracy here — but it’s just liberals agreeing yet again that conservatives have hidden, evil motives, because modern liberals simply can’t conceive of any other reason to disagree with the liberal consensus.
“Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.”