Sens Herb Kohl and Mike Lee call for Google antitrust probe

The chairman and top Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee have asked regulators to investigate Google's search practices, saying they were concerned the company was biasing results to favor its own products. Sens Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) -- sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, which already is conducting a broad antitrust investigation into Google's business practices, including search and advertising.

Sens Kohl and Lee questioned Google Chairman Eric Schmidt at a contentious hearing in September. Schmidt's answers, along with testimony from two Google competitors, raised questions that should be explored by regulators, the senators said in their letter to FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz. "We believe these allegations regarding Google's search engine practices raise important competition issues," they wrote, whose committee has been conducting its own review of Google. "We are committed to ensuring that consumers benefit from robust competition in online search and that the Internet remains the source of much free-market innovation."