A decision by U.S regulators to end a probe into whether Google Inc hurt
rivals by manipulating Internet searches will not affect the European
Union's examination of the company.
"We have taken note of the FTC
(Federal Trade Commission) decision, but we don't see that it has any
direct implications for our investigation, for our discussions with
Google, which are ongoing," said Michael Jennings, a spokesman for the
European Commission, the EU executive.
U.S. regulators on Thursday
ended their investigation into the giant internet company, which runs
the world's most popular search engine.
Other internet companies,
such as Microsoft Corp, had complained about Google tweaking its search
results to give prominence to its own products. But the FTC said there
was not enough evidence to pursue a big search-bias case.
The
European Commission has for the past two years been investigating
complaints against Google, including claims that it unfairly favoured
its own services in its search results.
Google presented informal
settlement proposals to the Commission in July. On December 18 the
Commission gave the company a month to come up with detailed proposals
to resolve the investigation.
If it fails to address the
complaints and is found guilty, Google could eventually be fined up to
10 percent of its revenue - a fine of up to $4 billion.
© Thomson Reuters 2012