EU: Almunia hints at end to Google case

The European Commission’s head Joaquin Almunia announced Tuesday that concessions recently offered by Google to end a three year-long investigation could be accepted, say reports.

Almunia spoke before the European Parliament to offer his opinion on Google’s offer, suggesting the concessions could resolve concerns that the search giant is abusing its dominance in how it displays search results.

Google has been probed by the Commission for about three years as rivals accuse the firm of squeezing them out of the market by failing to display rivals’ search results; the companies that stand against Google include Microsoft and price comparison site Foundem.

Almunia declined to outline the exact details of Google’s offer, which was revised following a rejected set of initial concessions, though he said the Commission has reached “a key moment in this case,” describing Google’s offer as having “significant improvements.”

Full Content: Reuters

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