The Wall Street Journal reports on a landmark settlement in the high-profile case between Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and EU antitrust regulators. Google has agreed to provide comparable prominence in online search results to services offered by its rivals.
The European Commission began a formal investigation into Google’s dominance in online search in November of 2010. Competitors such as Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) accused Google of unfairly promoting its own products and services to the detriment of rivals. Google submitted a proposal to remedy those concerns in January of last year, but rivals called that first response “deliberately ludicrous.”
After weeks of last-ditch negotiations, the new deal was struck and announced Wednesday. EU’s antitrust chief, Joaquín Almunia, said:
I believe that the new proposal obtained from Google after long and difficult talks can now address the commission’s concerns. Without preventing Google from improving its own services, it provides users with real choice between competing services presented in a comparable way; it is then up to them to choose the best alternative.
The settlement allows Google to avoid a formal, in-depth probe by EU regulators and a possibly hefty fine.
Google shares were up about 1.6% to 1,152.00 in premarket trading Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $758.50 to $1,186.54.
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