Reuters is reporting that Google has formally submitted several concessions to European Union competition regulators to settle a two-year antitrust investigation without a fine.
“Google first offered proposals at the end of January following a spate of complaints from rivals such as Microsoft that triggered the European Commission’s investigation in November 2010. Foo Yun Chee writes for Reuters. “But the company, which has a market share of over 80 percent in Europe’s Internet search market according to research firm comScore, has now made a formal offer of concessions after discussions with the EU antitrust authority.”
“In the last few weeks, the Commission completed its preliminary assessment formally setting out its concerns. On this basis, Google then made a formal submission of commitments to the Commission,” said Antoine Colombani, the Commission’s spokesman on competition policy.
“We are now preparing the launch of a market test to seek feedback from market players, including complainants, on these commitment proposals,” he said, declining to provide details.
In the past, Google has apparently offered to label its own services in search results to differentiate them from competing services and put fewer restrictions on advertisers, according to the report.
In January 2013, the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ended its they antitrust investigation of Google’s search engine practices. The outcome of these investigations was generally regarded as win for Google.
Google’s hierarchy will be hoping for more of the same here.
Source: Reuters
