EU anti-trust authorities said Friday they had received proposals from
Internet giant Google aimed at ending a probe into its dominance of
online search advertising platforms.
"We have received proposals from
Google and have started analysing them," said a spokesman for European
Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.
The EU launched
its investigation of Google in November 2010 following a complaint by
companies in several countries, including Ciao, which is owned by US
software giant Microsoft.
EU competition authorities expressed
concern following claims that Google search results for items such as
travel reservations favoured its own services to the detriment of those
offered by competitors.
Earlier this month the US Federal Trade
Commission said it lacked a legal basis to bring a case against Google
for allegedly abusing its dominance in Internet searches, but added that
it had won commitments from the company to end the "most troubling"
practices.
After significant progress in talks that nonetheless
stalled in July, Google met a midnight Thursday deadline to avoid
anti-trust charges and a possible fine of up to 10 percent of its sales.
Critics say that Google controls about 70 percent of the Internet search market, and the advertising that goes along with it.