In European Antitrust Fight, Google Needs to Appease Competitors

Google has so far emerged from its tangles with antitrust authorities virtually unscathed. But in Europe, regulators said, Google will not have it as easy.

The European Commission formally said for the first time that Google’s proposal for addressing antitrust concerns did not go far enough, and demanded that it come up with more far-reaching remedies or potentially face a fine of up to $5 billion. It was a significant setback for Google, which in April struck a deal with the commission to settle its three-year antitrust investigation by making certain changes in the way it displays answers to search inquiries. But the deal was contingent on feedback from Google’s rivals. The commission determined that the proposal was inadequate, and said the company needed to do more to address rivals’ concerns. The about-face followed an outcry from Google competitors during the market testing phase of the inquiry, in which the commission asked for feedback on the proposal.