EU asks ‘Is the Net essential?’ The answer could hurt Google

BIZ-GOOGLE-FAKE-NEWS-MCT

The European Union’s antitrust chief is weighing whether Internet services are “essential” to modern life in the same way as electricity grids and telecommunications suppliers – a potentially game-changing question for technology giants such as Google and Facebook Inc. 

EU officials are trying to understand “in depth” whether the Internet is “approaching something that we would call an essential facility,” EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told reporters in The Hague, the Netherlands. She didn’t name any specific companies.