Google: An 800-Pound Gorilla Offers an Olive Branch in Europe

When Google execs walk into a meeting with European politicians, they know their $66 billion in global sales dwarfs the yearly value of all of the goods and services produced in Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg or Malta.

They also know Google’s Android operating system runs almost 80 percent of the world’s smartphones sold in the first quarter of this year and the company handles more than 90 percent of the Internet searches in Europe.

That might have created an attitude problem, an image problem or both, POLITICO reported today. Google has found itself facing laws and litigation across Europe, including two antitrust cases in the European Commission.

“Google said, ‘This [European Parliament] means nothing. I do not spend time to go there and give my opinion,’” recalled Ramon Tremosa, a Member of the European Parliament. Google’s adversaries, by contrast, “have been very active. They have gone door-by-door, spending hours explaining” their complaints.

But after years of playing hardball, Google is turning on the charm.

From parties at Brussels hot spots to face time with politicians and millions spent on lobbying, Google is trying to repair soured relationships that could cost the California-based company billions in fines and even threaten its very structure.

“We just didn’t have the people on the ground to be able to have some of those conversations as we grew,” Matt Brittin, Google’s chief executive for Europe, acknowledged in a recent interview.

Google rented part of a national art museum in Brussels for a month this spring. It held a bash to celebrate YouTube’s 10th anniversary, inviting commissioners, MEPs, VIPs and the press. U.K. pop star Ellie Goulding sang some hits.

In April, Google announced it would give €150 million in funding for newsroom technology to some of Europe’s largest newspapers and journalism organizations, including the Financial Times and Die Zeit.

Google is also putting on a full-court press at the European institutions. Brittin plans to travel to Brussels from London at least once a month, and the company shelled out €3.5 million lobbying the European Union last year, a 480 percent increase over 2011.

But Google may find its gruff tactics from years past have made some doors hard to reopen and opponents slow to forgive or settle old claims.