European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has warned Google that it is the search major’s last chance to settle anti-trust allegations that it is abusing its dominant position in web search market.
The European Union (EU) is seeking more concessions from Google within weeks, in a bid to settle the ongoing three-year antitrust probe on anti-competitive behaviour, which would be its last chance the company to reach a negotiated settlement, before the European agency pursues legal action.
Google’s settlement would make it free from allegations including its misuse of leading position in search to its unfair competitive advantages, such as blocking rivals including Microsoft in web searches.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia was cited by Reuters as saying that he has not yet received any response from the company after he opined that the concessions offered by Google do not go far enough to address the EU’s concerns
"We need more and we need more not during the next year, we need more during the next weeks," Almunia told.
In response to Google’s proposals in December, Almunia said that Google’s latest offer did not address the Commission’s concerns about the way it had been treating its rivals in so-called vertical searches.
Investigation on Google’s search practises started in 2010 in the wake of complaints from several smaller firms that it had been belittling them in search results while showing its own similar services on its first search results page.
