The European Union (EU) antitrust authorities are still investigating allegations made against search giant Google that it manipulated search results to promote its own business and block rivals.
In July this year, Google tried to avoid a possible fine of about $4bn or 10% of its 2011 revenues by offering concessions to the European Commission after it was reportedly found to have breached the rules.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia was quoted by Reuters as saying, "We are in the process of conversation with Google to try to reach a settlement, but we are not there yet."
Complainants against Google were made by software maker Microsoft and smaller companies in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the US.
Prior to EU, the US Federal Trade Commission, headed by Jon Leibowitz, is also conducting an independent investigation into the matter
In October this year, EU had asked Google to undo the contentious alterations that were made in March 2012 to its European privacy policy.
EU, in October this year, had warned Microsoft to modify the Internet Explorer Web browser on its latest Windows 8 operating system to avoid further antitrust investigations.
