Google lines up ‘far-reaching’ EU concessions

EUROpEAN Union competition officials yesterday accepted “farreaching” concessions offered by Google to settle allegations that it is abusing its dominant position in internet searches.

The technology titan will significantly change the ways it displays some search results in Europe in favour of its competitors.

By reaching a settlement, in a case stretching back three years, Google will be spared a longer anti-trust procedure that could have resulted in fines of up to 10 per cent of the company’s annual revenue, or about $5 billion (£3.1bn).

EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said he is “strongly convinced” the US company’s proposals – its third attempt to address the competition concerns – are sufficient. “This is an important step forward,” he said.

Google’s proposals will now be sent to the 18 original plaintiffs for evaluation before the commission makes a final decision in the coming months.

The search giant will commit to display results from three competitors in a similar way to its own whenever it promotes its specialised search services such as Google shopping, restaurant or hotel searches.

it will also label more clearly search results stemming from its own services to allow users to distinguish between natural search results and those promoted by Google.

The EU last year threw out two sets of proposed concessions by the firm because they were deemed insufficient.