INTERNET : GOOGLE-DOUBLECLICK MERGER DRAWS FURTHER CONCERNS.

By buying the online advertising business DoubleClick, the US search engine Google has sparked concerns about the protection of privacy in an environment where competition is king.

Leaders in their market, the two companies combined will have access to a vast information database. While Google is able to gather information about searches that users perform, DoubleClick allows advertisers to target their messages by researching pages visited.

Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes will deliver her verdict on the merger on 2 April following an in-depth anti-trust investigation. Opinions on this restricted vision of competition are divided. The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee therefore intends to organise a public hearing on the subject in Brussels on 21 January.

Across the Atlantic, the US$3.1 billion (2.2 billion) Google-DoubleClick marriage announced in April also created quite a stir. Consumer and liberty protection associations tried to convince the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the potential threat, but in vain. The FTC announced in December that it would make no attempt to block the deal on the grounds that it would not distort competition in the online advertising market. Microsoft and Yahoo! argue to the contrary, as do internet content providers and online newspapers, concerned about their advertising space.

The Commission's preliminary results vary considerably, and many questions remain: "Do other policy areas need to be taken into account when considering competition questions," asked Spyros A. Pappas during a round table organised by the legal cabinet, Pappas & Associates. He then went on to quote the EC Treaty, which promotes the strengthening of consumer protection as well as the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The chairman of the EU's so-called Article 29' working group, referring to the Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC), reminded Kroes that access to and handling of personal data within the EU is subject to both national protection laws and EU legislation, enforced notably through checks carried out by national authorities responsible for data protection.

The European data protection...