Europe Wants More Concessions From Google

Google must offer more concessions to European Union regulators to escape huge fines linked to the way it runs its online search business, the bloc’s top antitrust official warned.

“I concluded that the proposals that Google sent to us months ago are not enough to overcome our concerns,” Joaquín Almunia, the European Union competition commissioner, told a news conference. Almunia said he had written to Eric E. Schmidt, the company’s executive chairman, “asking Google to present better proposals, or improved proposals.” The comments are a significant setback for Google, which has put its efforts into reaching a settlement with Almunia that would entail minimal disruption to the advertising linked to search services that delivers the vast majority of its revenue.