It cannot be said that Microsoft enjoys a dominant position in the online search sector, whether in France or anywhere else in the world. Bing has a tiny market share among Internet users; on the other hand, its results can be found in a good number of small search engines, particularly in Europe: Qwant, Ecosia and DuckDuckGo enrich their results with those of Bing.
Doubts about Bing
But here it is, Microsoft is apparently favoring its own search engine by delivering poor quality results to rivals — and yet customers! The Competition Authority, which has launched an investigation into the matter, wants to get to the bottom of it. An investigation at the end of which the American publisher could be formally accused, and suffer a heavy financial penalty. Microsoft has announced that it is "fully cooperating" with the Authority on the matter.
The French regulator is not shy about imposing fines. A year ago, Google was fined €250 million for related rights. The Authority has also gone after Nvidia for its practices in the GPU market, not to mention Apple and advertising tracking.
European search engines are looking to free themselves from the cumbersome American supervision. Qwant and Ecosia have been working together since last November to build a common infrastructure for an independent search engine.
Source: Bloomberg
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