EU launches inquiry into Google

An EU investigation has begun into allegations that Google has abused a dominant position among online search service providers.

It follows complaints by its competitors that Google’s unpaid and sponsored search results leave them at a disadvantage.

But the European Commission, launching the formal proceedings, says this does not imply that the Competition Authority has proof of any infringements of European Union rules.

Brussels will look into how Google places the results of its own search services, which the plaintiffs say bumps theirs down the rankings.

A Commission spokeswoman said: “I don’t think you should expect anything now before months, but as I said, we have made this public today and now it is publicly known and when we have something else to say we will say so.”

Several EU countries’ data-protection regulators are also investigating the data collected by Google’s Street View cars, which photograph neighbourhoods. A similar US probe ended last month when Google said it would improve privacy safeguards.

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