The European Commission (EC) is likely to demand more concessions from Google to end a long running antitrust investigation into the company’s alleged misuse of its dominant position in the online search market.
EC VP in charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, was quoted by the Telegraph as saying that almost 100% of remedy proposals published last month did no go far enough to address rivals’ complaints that Google unfairly promotes is own services in general search rankings.
"We will analyse the responses we have received, we will ask Google, probably, I cannot anticipate this formally, almost 100% we will ask Google: you should improve your proposals," Almunia said.
Earlier this year, the EC gave Google’s competitors and other interested parties a month to respond to the company’s proposals in relation to online search and search advertising.
In April this year, Google submitted a package of concessions to the European Union (EU) to resolve antitrust investigations.
EC started the investigation into Google in late 2010 after receiving various complaints from companies such as Microsoft, Expedia and TripAdvisor.
In January this year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) closed the 20-month antitrust probe into Google’s web-search business that investigated whether it had manipulated its search results to favour its own services.
The complainants also included Oracle and UK shopping comparison website Foundem demanding that Google needs to give a guarantee it will not show any favour for its own services.
The complainants were asked to give their feedback by May 26, which has been now extended to June 27.
