The European Union (EU) cannot keep itself from overregulating the digital world. Last month, the European Commission (EC) published a proposal to compel Google Search to share data with competing digital services. “With this public consultation, we want to hear from the market on the most effective ways for Google to share search data with competing online search engine providers, to continue our push for innovation and fair competitiveness,” stated Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy. The EU seeks simultaneously to benefit consumers and to goose “competition,” but the two aims contradict one another. Google Search data, handed over to competitors, might prop up those competitors (which have, to date, failed to market digital services of Google Search’s quality). But enforced data sharing—whatever degree of ersatz competition it might bring—endangers consumers.
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