Google’s Hopes of EU Settlement Suffer Blow

Google’s hopes of settling its high-profile antitrust case in the European Union suffered a setback as rivals and consumer groups publicly blasted its latest proposal for resolving the EU's competition concerns.

A raft of complainants said the Internet giant's new proposals were only a modest improvement on an earlier offer, and would do next to nothing to improve competition in online search. The negative feedback intensifies pressure on the EU's antitrust chief, Joaquín Almunia, either to bring Google back to the negotiating table for a third time or to launch a formal complaint, unleashing a legal process that could culminate in large fines for the U.S.-based company, according to EU competition-law specialists. Almunia has said previously that he hopes to reach a settlement by next spring. Google, which enjoys an Internet-search market share of more than 90% in the EU, put forward a second set of proposals in October aimed at addressing accusations that it squeezes out rivals in its search results. In November, the deadline for some complainants to respond was extended to the week of Dec 10.