Ka-ching
It’s a good day when the European Commission takes up your client’s complaint against Google, and the European Investment Bank hands you 200 million euros.
That’s what happened this week to travel booking tech company Amadeus.
The European Commission warned Google it had a matter of ‘weeks’ to promise to change certain business practices that may be in breach of competition law.
One of the chief complainants in the case has been online travel booking company Expedia.
The IT company that powers Expedia’s booking infrastructure is Amadeus, a company set up by some of Europe’s major incumbent airlines including Air France-KLM and Lufthansa. Amadeus has also publicly backed the case against Google.
On the same day as the commission’s Google announcement, the EIB said it had approved a 200 million loan to Amadeus for further R&D.
Finally, some joined-up thinking among the EU institutions towards fostering European industry champions.
Perhaps Amadeus has its etymology (now) in ‘Love of the EU’. Ama d’EU (the ‘s’ indicates the genetive. or something).
BM.
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