Brussels considers reopening Google antitrust settlement

Brussels is weighing whether to reopen its draft antitrust settlement with Google, in a move that leaves the carefully crafted deal in danger of collapsing amid political backlash in Europe.

Google's rivals are fiercely critical of aspects of the provisional pact, and some of their arguments are now being taken seriously by the European Commission, according to people familiar with the process.

It comes as the US internet group is coming under heavy political fire in France and Germany in the wake of the Snowden spying scandal, and faces a changing of the guard in Brussels that could spell regulatory trouble for its operations in Europe.

While the commission will take a decision on what to do in September after all complainants' comments have been assessed, Google will be alarmed that its third package of concessions may not bring the investigation to a close.

For more than four years the commission has investigated allegations that Google rigged search results to the benefit of its own in-house specialised services, such as shopping or airline fight results.

After extended talks with Joaquin Almunia, the EU competition chief, Google promised to offer rivals a more prominent showing alongside its preferred results in a bid to head off formal charges, a lengthy legal battle and possible fine.

Mr Almunia previously expressed confidence that the third package addressed the main antitrust concerns, in spite of heavy criticism from some fellow EU commissioners and French and German ministers.

But he also made clear that he would take account of any new arguments made by rivals, who recently received letters explaining how their complaints might be rejected.

At this late stage, the commission is reassessing two elements of the draft settlement: whether more prominent visibility for rival links is enough to remedy the diversion of traffic to Google service; and the auction mechanism where rivals bid for links alongside Google's specialised search results.

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Should Mr Almunia decide to reject Google's draft offer and reopen talks, it is likely to mean he will be unable to close the inquiry under his term as commissioner, which ends as soon as November.

In February Google privately made clear to the commission it was not willing to revise its third offer. But the US group does fear Mr Almunia's successor will be more sympathetic to rivals demanding it is charged for abusing its dominant position and forced to show no favouritism to its own services in search results.

No EU antitrust case has ever been extended to four settlement offers, or been revived after complainants are formally warned that their case is poised to be rejected.

Critics argue the settlement barely dents the traffic going to favoured Google services. One possible improvement is revising how it selects links in specialist search results for items such as hotels or cameras. This could change how Google treats its own services compared with those of rivals.

Options to amend the auction mechanism include curbing Google's freedom to set terms - such as predicted click rates - that help determine which rivals are given links.

Here is an example of how search results on Google would have changed according to the third settlement:

Before settlement

After settlement

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