【经济学人】欧盟委员会对谷歌征收巨额罚款|2017.07.30|总第950期

SHE was born to Lutheran ministers known to be both tough and principled. As a child, she thought it unfair that pupils were not allowed to sell fruit and milk in school and successfully lobbied for change. In her office in Brussels she keeps a statue of a raised middle finger, a gift from a trade union when she was deputy prime minister of Denmark, as a reminder that there will always be critics.

她天生注定成为以强硬和刚正著称的路德教部长。小时候，她认为学生不允许在学校里卖水果和牛奶是不公平的，并且成功地通过游说改变这一状况。在她布鲁塞尔的办公室里，她有一尊竖中指的雕像，在她是丹麦的副总理时从工会的收到的礼物，并把其作为一个提醒：批评无处不在无时不有。

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s competition commissioner, took a tough line against Google this week. The size of the fine the tech giant will have to pay for abusing its monopoly in online search, €2.4bn ($2.7bn), sets a record for European antitrust penalties (see chart). Yet more important than the amount is that she provided a rough guide to how the European Commission plans to deal with online firms which not only dominate a market, but essentially are the market.

这本不令人惊讶，欧盟竞争事务委员玛格丽特·维斯塔格(Margrethe Vestager)本周对谷歌采取强硬手段。这个科技巨头在网上搜索中滥用其垄断地位，其被罚的数目为24亿英镑（27亿美元），为欧洲的反垄断处罚创下记录（见图表）。然而，比罚款数目更重要的是她为此提供了一个大致的指导方针，指导欧盟委员会如何处理那些不仅支配市场但本质上就是市场的网络公司。

In the 2000s Microsoft got into trouble because it had expanded its Windows monopoly by bundling it with its web browser. By comparison, Google’s infraction seems minor. In 2002 it launched a price-comparison service called Froogle, later renamed Google Shopping. In 2008 it changed how this service works. According to the commission, the new version systematically favoured Google’s own comparison-shopping results by giving them prominent placement at the top of its generic search results and demoting links to rival offerings to pages further down in its results, where users hardly venture.

在21世纪，微软陷入困境，因为它通过将其与Web浏览器捆绑以扩大Windows垄断地位。而相比之下，谷歌的违规行为似乎微不足道。2002它又发布了叫做Froogle的价格比较服务，后来改名为谷歌购物。2008，它改变了这项服务的运作方式。根据欧盟委员会，通过在其通用搜索结果中置顶自己的位置，将链接给竞争对手的产品以在结果页面进一步拉低对手，而用户几乎不会点开，谷歌的最新版本在系统上支持自己的比较购物结果。

• bundle v.捆绑销售（软件）

• infraction n.违法，违规

• demote v.使降级;使降职;使降低地位

This would not be a problem if there were several big search engines. But Google’s market share in most European countries exceeds 90%. When the firm introduced the changes, traffic to rival websites, such as Britain’s Foundem, plunged . This denied other firms the chance to compete and reduced consumer choice, said Ms Vestager. Google has 90 days to find a way to treat its own comparison-shopping service and those of rivals equally.

如果有几个大型搜索引擎存在，这不会是一个问题。 但谷歌在大多数欧洲国家的市场份额超过了90％。 当公司有创新行为时，诸如英国的Foundem等对手网站的流量就猛跌。维斯塔格表示，这一行为阻碍了其他公司竞争的机会，也减少消费者的选择。谷歌有90天的时间找到一种方法来处理自己的和对手的比较购物服务。

• plunge v.骤降；猛跌

Predictably, Google wants none of this. It says its search service is far less dominant than it appears: consumers look up products on many other sites, including Amazon and eBay (the commission did not count these as search engines). Google also notes that the changes made in 2008 benefited consumers. “People usually prefer links that take them directly to the products they want,” Kent Walker, the firm’s general counsel, wrote in a blog post. Here, Google appears to have a point. Why would consumers want to click on a link which leads them to another site if they can see products and prices neatly lined up above Google’s search results?

可以预料的是，谷歌并不想这样。 它表示其搜索服务远远不如它所显示的那样占主导性：消费者在许多其他网站上搜索产品，包括亚马逊和易趣网（欧盟委员会并不把它们视为搜索引擎）。 谷歌还指出，2008年的创新使消费者受益了。 该公司的总顾问肯特·沃克（Kent Walker）在一篇博文中写道：“人们通常喜欢将他们直接带到他们想要的产品的链接。 在这里，谷歌似乎有自己的优点。如果消费者可以在谷歌的搜索结果看到整齐排列的产品和价格，为什么他们还想要点击引导他们进入另一个网站链接？

The European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, will have to weigh the merits of its argument. Google will appeal, and there are weaknesses in the commission’s case, such as the difficulty of proving real consumer harm from the treatment of other price-comparison sites. Yet the commission deserves credit for tackling a question, which is increasingly important but which American trustbusting agencies have avoided: what is the responsibility of dominant online firms, including Amazon and Facebook, when direct competitors, large and small, offer products and services on their platforms?

欧盟最高法院欧洲法院必须权衡其论据的有利点。 谷歌会上诉，而欧盟委员会的这个案子也有缺点，例如难以提供消费者从其他价格比较网站的处理方面的受到真正损害。 然而，该委员会值得信任的是解决问题，这个问题越来越重要，但是美国的信托机构已经避免了这一点：即当大大小小的直接竞争对手，包括亚马逊和脸书等主要网络公司在他们的平台上提供产品和服务时，他们的责任是什么？

The prevailing wisdom, particularly in America, used to be that “super-platforms”, despite their size, do not unfairly use their market power and thrive because of their unceasing innovation. The competition is always just one click away, argues Herbert Hovenkamp of the University of Pennsylvania. If Google were to degrade its search results by demoting links to better services, users would just switch to a rival service, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo.（读者试译）

在美国非常流行的至理名言是成为“超级平台”，尽管规模不大，他们公平地利用自己的市场力量，依靠自己的不断创新而蓬勃发展。 宾夕法尼亚大学的赫伯特·霍文坎普（Herbert Hovenkamp）认为，竞争总是一触即发。 （期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）

But as digital platforms have grown ever bigger, that thinking has started to change, even in America. A growing number of antitrust experts now accept the commission’s view, that network effects create high barriers to entry in online markets. This means that Google, for instance, can in fact degrade its search results selectively (and disadvantageously to its direct competitors) without having to fear that its users will defect, says Maurice Stucke of the University of Tennessee. “We need these super-platforms to adhere to a principle of neutrality,” he says.

但随着数字平台的发展越来越大，即使在美国，这种想法也开始发生变化。越来越多的反垄断专家现在接受了欧盟委员会的看法，网络效应为进入网络市场制造了很大障碍。 田纳西大学的Maurice Stucke说，这意味着谷歌实际上可以选择性地降低搜索结果（不利于直接竞争对手），而不用担心用户会变节。 “我们需要这些超级平台来坚持中立原则，”他说。

• antitrust adj.（指美国法律）反托拉斯的，反垄断的

How can such a principle be enforced? In the case at hand Google could just feed all search queries through one algorithm and do away with the second one that produces the Google Shopping results. But what if this one algorithm still ends up putting Google’s links on top? Will the commission then force the firm to reveal its inner workings and even rewrite it? If search algorithms become more personalised, as is expected to be the case with digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, it will be even more difficult to detect bias.

如何执行这样的原则？ 在这种近在眼前的情况下，谷歌可以通过一种算法提供所有的搜索查询，并且废除生成谷歌购物结果的第二种查询。 但是，如果这个算法仍然最终将谷歌的链接放在顶端呢？ 那么委员会是否会强制公司揭示其内部操作甚至重写呢？ 如果搜索算法变得更加个性化，正如像亚马逊Alexa这样的数字助理那样，那么将更难以检测到偏向。

• algorithm n.（尤指电脑程序中的）算法，运算法则

Ms Vestager can put such questions aside for the moment. But this week’s decision sets a precedent. Her team will now examine other offerings from Google, including travel information and reviews of local businesses. It may well push for scrupulously equal treatment in these fields, too—which would limit how the search giant can combine and link its services, at least in Europe.

玛格丽特现在可以暂时把这些问题放在一边。 但本周的决定将是先例。 她的团队现在将审查谷歌提供的其他产品，包括旅游信息和当地企业的评论。 这也可能推动在这些领域的严格平等待遇 -至少在欧洲，这将限制搜索巨头如何将其服务结合起来。

Queen Margrethe

Ms Vestager has let it be known, too, that Google is likely to be found guilty in the two other cases she has launched against it. One deals with Android, its mobile operating system, and whether the firm has used it to protect and expand its position in online search. The other examines whether Google has hurt competition in online advertising. Brussels insiders say that decisions (and further hefty fines) may come as soon as July.

玛格丽特明确表示谷歌在她起诉的另两起案件中可能被判有罪。 一个涉及谷歌是否利用安卓的移动操作系统来保护和扩大其在线搜索的地位。 另外一个是审查谷歌是否破坏了网络广告的竞争。 布鲁塞尔内部人士说，决议（甚至更高的罚款）可能会在7月份公布。

• hefty adj.（体积、重量或数量）巨大的

Fair competition is essential in an industry that is reshaping society rapidly, Ms Vestager argues. As the cases, and the fines, pile on, there is sure to be resistance from across the Atlantic—and perhaps even sympathy for Google. Even her fans wonder whether Ms Vestager is too zealous . But it may require someone as forceful as the Dane to take on the biggest platforms.

维斯塔格女士认为，公平竞争对于快速重塑社会的行业至关重要。 由于这些案件和罚款，堆积在一起，一定会有来自美国的那边抵抗，甚至可能对谷歌同情。 即使是维斯塔赫的支持者都怀疑她过于狂热了。 但这可能正需要一个像丹麦人一样强劲的人处理这些最大的平台。

• zealous adj.（尤指对政治或宗教理想）热情的，充满激情的，狂热的

翻译 ▍瞐瞐

审核 ▍瞐瞐

图文编辑 ▍leone

责任编辑 ▍毛毛