Google offers fresh concessions to address EU competition watchdogs’ concerns over search results

Google has offered fresh concessions to address the  concerns of European competition watchdogs over its alleged manipulation of search results to favour its own services and stifle rivals.

According to Joaquin Almunia, the vice president of the European Commission, the web giant had proposed new concessions to address several concerns around its near-complete dominance of the search market.

The move followed earlier proposals, that according to major rivals including Microsoft and specialist web services such as TripAdvisor and the British shopping comparison company Foundem fell short and would likely increase its power.

Almunia told the European Parliament, the improved offer from Google could pave the way for the company to avoid antitrust charges.

He said with the significant improvements on the table, there was a possibility to work again and seek to find an effective solution.

He added what was needed now was to receive concrete technical elements on the effectiveness of the proposed package in order to conclude whether this new proposal was satisfactory from a competition point of view.

The competition complaints against the search company relate to promotion of its own specialist services, such as shopping search, in general search results. It had also been accused by rivals of harvesting their content without permission to improve its travel reviews, and imposing exclusivity agreements.

Google had been under investigation for three years by the European Commission, which functions as the bloc's antitrust regulator, regarding complaints it was blocking competitors in search results.

The company proposed concessions in September, in a bid to close a dispute that could see it pay up to 10 per cent of its global revenue, or $5 billion.

Almunia said he believed the company's offer made it easier for web users to see results from Google's rivals in internet searches.

He added he could not offer details of the precise concessions on offer, but he believed these would go a long way in addressing the antitrust authority's concerns fully.

According to Almunia, it would be much easier for a user to see competing services in Google search results irrespective of the device being used.

There were reservations among rivals that even if concerns around computers were addressed, search results displayed on smaller devices such as mobiles could still prevent these from appearing prominently.

He added, with the new concessions it would be possible for companies to exercise greater control to opt out of appearing in searches.