EU competition regulators are looking into complaints filed by three online companies against Google that may lead to a formal investigation into the search-engine giant's business practices.
The European Commission can fine firms up to 10% of their revenues for violations of competition rules. It has to date imposed billions of euro in fines against Intel and Microsoft for abuse of market dominance.
'The Commission can confirm that it has received three complaints against Google which it is examining. The Commission has not opened a formal investigation for the time being,' it said in a statement this morning. It did not identify the companies which made the complaints.
World number one search engine Google said earlier that British price comparison site Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr had alleged that its search algorithm demoted their sites in Web search results because they were rivals.
It said Microsoft-owned Ciao from Bing had complained about its standard terms and conditions. Google said it had done nothing wrong and was confident it would not face a formal investigation.
Google had 90% of the global search market compared with 7.4% for a combined Yahoo and Bing, according to November data from Web research firm StatCounter. It has drawn increasing regulatory scrutiny as it has grown.
US competition authorities have challenged Google's settlement with book publishers and authors' groups to create an online digital archive, and are seeking more information on the competitive impact of its proposed $750m purchase of mobile advertising company AdMob.
