Google's anti-trust foes see ally in new EU competition chief

Brussels

AFTER waiting more than four years for Brussels to resolve his anti-trust complaint against Google while traffic to his website plunged by 80 percent, Michael Weber of German online mapping service Hot-Map.com held out little hope for success. Until now.

He says a meeting with the new competition chief of the European Commission has left him with newfound hope that Brussels will take action at last to curb behaviour by the US Internet giant, which he blames for hurting his business.

Danish politician Margrethe Vestager, who took over the EU competition portfolio in November, inherited an anti-trust complaint by more than a dozen companies against Google, left unresolved by her Spanish predecessor Joaquin Almunia. Mr Almunia launched an investigati…