Google Auction NDA Seen as Way to Keep Rivals From Talking to EU

Google requires rivals to sign a non-disclosure agreement to take part in an auction that will decide which search providers are listed as alternatives on Android smartphones, according to Bloomberg. Competitors say the move is a further example of strong-arming by the Alphabet unit and could make it difficult for them to provide feedback to the EU about Google’s practices.

Google is giving its competitors until Aug. 13 to fill out and submit the NDA, which would bind both parties to protect confidential information for a period of five years after it is disclosed. “A party may disclose to the other party information that the discloser considers confidential,“ Google says in the non-disclosure agreement. “Recipient must use a reasonable degree of care to protect confidential information and to prevent any unauthorized use or disclosure of confidential information.“

Google said in an emailed statement that the NDA is not designed to prevent participants from responding to inquiries from the European Commission. It said an NDA is standard in many auctions and it’s designed to protect sensitive information. In the NDA form, Google doesn’t specify whether the agreement would only pertain to information related to the auction, saying only the agreement is designed to “facilitate technical discussions concerning existing or future product development efforts by the parties.“

“The auction diverts to Google money that providers would use to innovate and compete,“ said Thomas Vinje, a counsel and spokesman for FairSearch, a group of Google rivals and a complainant in the Android competition case. Christian Kroll, the CEO of Ecosia, a Berlin-based search engine that uses profits to plant trees, said he’s “still considering“ the situation, “but I wouldn’t say that it’s very likely that we’d actually join such an auction because I think it’s highly unfair. This offer is rather insulting,“ he said. “As a monopolist, Google is asking its competitors to pay them money.“

In its blog post announcing the changes, Google said an auction is “a fair and objective method to determine which search providers are included in the choice screen.“ It also said the revenue from the auction would help it to invest in developing and maintaining the Android platform, which is open-source.