EU: Reports confirm latest Google probe rumors

European regulators are gearing up for their next in-depth investigation into Google, reports say, confirming earlier rumors of such a move.

In question is Google’s Android smartphone operating system and the company’s practice of pre-loading Google-owned applications on those phones.

Two unnamed sources said the European Commission is laying the groundwork for a formal investigation in the matter ahead of the entrance of a new competition chief this November. The Commission so far has sent questionnaires to Android rivals to obtain comment on the dispute.

Reports say those questionnaires are more in-depth and detailed than those sent in previous inquiries into the matter, launched in 2011 and 2013.

The questionnaire this time around includes a prompt asking companies if there was a formal or informal agreement made with Google to pre-load smartphones with certain apps, or to not pre-load competing apps.

Respondents, which have until September to file their answers, have also been asked to provide documents including letters, faxes, and notes from phone calls and meetings to the Commission dating as far back as 2007, reports say.

Full content: Reuters

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