“… Given their ‘kingmaker’ power, it is essential that search engines keep the public interest and their social responsibility in view…”
6. October 2025
Lawyer, Google expert, and author (including “Digital Advertising and the Google Ecosystem” and “Self-Preferencing in Online Search”) Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner is a first signatory of the #FreeWebSearch charter. For many years, he has been conducting interdisciplinary research and consulting on economics, technology, and law in the digital economy, particularly online advertising markets. He sees search engines as ‘kingmakers’ and points out their social responsibility:
“Search engines are the primary gateway to information of all kinds. As intermediaries, they’ve become bottlenecks: policing what content gets seen by whom. Given their ‘kingmaker’ power, it is essential that they keep the public interest and their social responsibility in view.”
RA Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner
expert in antitrust law and digital regulation Geradin Partners, author of a book on Google
RA Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner
expert in antitrust law and digital regulation Geradin Partners, author of a book on Google
Information about the #FreeWebSearch Charter
Who decides what billions of people find on the internet – and what they don’t? This question of power is addressed by the #FreeWebSearch Charter, published by a European alliance of civil society, academia, and media organizations under the initiative of the Open Search Foundation. With ten clear principles, the initiative aims to put control over web search back in the hands of society.
