Google gets two more weeks to answer EU charges

Google Inc, the world's most popular internet search engine, has been granted an extra two weeks to counter EU charges of abusing its market power in a dozen EU countries and stave off a possible billion-euro fine.

The EC had extended the deadline for replying to the charges to 31 August from 17 August, according to a Google spokesman.

This comes as the second extension for the company which was to respond to the Commission's charge sheet, or statement of objections, by 7 July.

Google which was accused by the Commission of distorting web search results to favour its shopping service, confirmed that it had accepted the company's request for additional time to reply.

"In line with normal practice, the Commission analysed the reasons for the request. As a result, it has granted an extension allowing Google to fully exercise its rights of defence," commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said.

An academic study from Harvard and Columbia universities, funded by Google's rival Yelp, has found that Google discriminates against competitors in its search results. (See: Study finds Google prioritises own services over rivals)

Google has a 90-per cent share of the online search market in Europe.

The EU was concerned Google's retail competitors like travel portal TripAdvisor or business review site Yelp could be squeezed out due to the Google's dominance.

In case, of an adverse verdict, Google could be in line for fines of upto as much as 10 per cent of its $66 billion worldwide turnover last year.