Google 'could gain' from EU competition sanctions Such fears are likely form part of the complainants' formal responses to the proposals. By publishing Google's suggested remedies, the European Commission has triggered the "market testing" phase of its monopoly abuse procedure. Complainants typically have a month to respond to suggested remedies, but even that has been criticised, with Google's rivals complaining that the complexity of web search means that they cannot properly test the proposals. "Google has taken a year to develop the proposal released today," said Thomas Vinje, spokesman for FairSearch Europe, a group representing 17 complainants, including Microsoft and Oracle, the database giant which lost a high-profile patent court battle over the Android mobile operating system to Google last year. "We think it's only fair that outside experts have more than a month to help the Commission "market test" the long-lasting effects of Google's proposal on consumers and innovation," Mr Vinje added. Google has also offered legally-binding five-year commitments not to lock publishers into exclusive advertising deals and to not harvest content from websites without permission. The travel reviews website TripAdvisor joined the complaint against Google after it copied reviews to build its own rival service. As soon as the proposals were published, however, it was clear some complainants would not accept labelling as the main basis of a settlement. Foundem argued that any settlement should stop Google abusing its monopoly, not require it to change the way it does so. Chief executive Shivaun Raff said Google should be forced to treat all links equally in search results. "Instead of promising to end its abusive practices, Google's proposal seems to offer a half-hearted attempt to dilute their anti-competitive effects, by labelling Google's own services and throwing in some token links to competitors" services alongside them," she said. Without robust guidelines that guarantee... competitors will be free from anti-competitive penalties and discrimination, neither measure will make a dent in Google's ability to hijack the traffic and revenues of its rivals. The European Commission is not obliged to heed such concerns when the market testing period ends and could approve Google's offer. Alternatively officials could insist on more stringent restrictions or issue a formal "statement of objections', a formal step towards a heavy fine.