US Internet giant Google on Thursday rejected new EU accusations that it illegally abuses its market dominance, in its formal reaction to anti-trust allegations by Brussels earlier this year. Google filed objections against beefed up charges made by hard-charging European Commission competition chief Margrethe Vestager over online shopping, and fresh charges over its advertising services.
Kent Walker, senior vice president and general counsel of Google, said in a blog that the shopping case "still rests on a theory that just doesn't fit the reality of how most people shop online."
"We believe these claims are wrong as a matter of fact, law, and economics," Walker said.
The EU now has three cases on the go against Google, one of a series of US companies targeted by Vestager in a campaign that has raised hackles on the other side of the Atlantic.
The biggest and most recent case involves Google's Android mobile phone operating system, a serious challenge to one of the company's most strategic businesses with smartphones fast taking from over traditional PCs.
Google is expected to respond to the Android case next week.