US antitrust authorities probe Google
It’s official: US antitrust authorities have launched a probe of internet search giant Google.
“Yesterday, we received formal notification from the US Federal Trade Commission that it has begun a review of our business,” Google said Friday in its company blog.
The firm stressed its willingness to cooperate with authorities. “It’s still unclear exactly what the FTC’s concerns are,” Google said.
The probe was first reported Thursday when The Wall Street Journal cited sources familiar with the matter saying the FTC was expected to open an antitrust investigation into Google.
The agency will be investigating whether Google is using its position as the leading search engine to feed users into its own websites and services, rather than display links to competing markets, the newspaper reported.
The Financial Times reported that the attorneys general of the US states of California, New York and Ohio were also launching probes. The European Commission began a similar investigation in November on Google’s dominant position in Europe.
Google’s search-advertising business accounts for the majority of company revenue, and the probes could be dangerous for Google’s core business model.
The FTC’s probe is reportedly expected to take a year.
According to US antitrust law, having a monopoly is not illegal, but abusing it is. Two-thirds of Internet searching in the US takes place through Google, according to comScore Inc, the global leader in measuring the digital world. Google also handles more than 80 per cent of Web searches abroad.
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