[relic17]

The European Commission should be very careful in distinguishing between illegal activity and success as a good service that people overwhelmingly prefer. A company (just like an individual) should not be expected to sabotage itself by promoting competitors' products. It is only natural that a company supports and advertises its own offerings first and foremost, and any attempt to force it to do otherwise (given that the company has not acted illegally) is unethical. In a related article on the BBC site, the founder of Foundem (a firm that filed a complaint against Google) says "We just want a level playing field." The proper response to that would be: "Well, go out and create a compelling product that people want to use." Nothing in business (or in life) is on a perfectly level playing field; you have to work hard to create opportunities for yourself. Asking the government to hinder a competitor is morally questionable and certainly not a viable long-term strategy. An even bigger problem is asking the government to provide "level playing field[s]" that go beyond the existing anti-trust laws. I hope the EC will be prudent enough to punish Google if and only if clear law violations are found, and not because some competitor is unhappy with the Google's size and customer engagement.

[lwhi]

Can a company become so large (and powerful), that it becomes (realistically) impossible to compete?

[dantheman]

No, not for any real length of time - unless of course they are granted some privilege by the government.

[lwhi]

I hope you're correct :)

From my understanding, this is one of the reasons that we have legal frameworks that discourage monopolies.