PARIS, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - A major world press association asked European and North American regulators on Monday to block a Google-Yahoo deal on antitrust grounds.
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) wants an advertising agreement between the two leading search engines blocked, saying the deal would hamper revenues provided to newspapers and other websites.
The association “believes that the competition that currently exists between Google and Yahoo is absolutely essential to ensuring that our member titles receive competitive returns for online advertising on their sites, and for obtaining competitive prices when they purchase paid search advertising,” said Gavin O’Reilly, president of the Paris-based WAN.
He also said that “the proposed deal will fatally weaken Yahoo as a competitor” and “give Google unwarranted market power over important segments of online advertising.”
Under the agreement between the companies, Yahoo would be able to run ads supplied by Google alongside its own search results, while Google “has refused to allow Yahoo to show Google ads on the websites of new publishing partners it acquires” and “has imposed a condition that impedes one of Yahoo’s last remaining opportunities to compete with Google,” WAN said.
