London: Google has made a proposal to the European Commission in a bid to defuse a wide-ranging antitrust investigation into its dominance of the search market, according to a report.
In a letter to Joaquin Almunia, the competition commissioner, Google`s executive chairman set out several proposals in response to ‘areas of concern’ identified by the European Commission.
“We have made a proposal to address the four areas the European Commission described as potential concerns. We continue to work cooperatively with the Commission,” a Google spokesman said.
In May, Almunia gave Google a July deadline to propose remedies to protect competition online or face the prospect of heavy fines, The Telegraph reports.
According to the paper, speaking at Google`s Big Tent conference in May, the firm’s chairman Eric Schmidt disagreed that Google had violated any law.
“We disagree that we are in violation. Until they are precise about what areas of the law we have violated, it will be very difficult for me to speculate,” he said.
The European Commission’s investigation was opened in November in response to a series of complaints from smaller web firms, including the British price comparison service Foundem, which said Google had relegated it in general results.
It has called for Google to be forced to adopt “search neutrality”, meaning it would not be allowed to promote its own services in general search results.
ANI
