BRUSSELS--European Union antitrust authorities are seeking fresh
concessions from Google Inc. (GOOGL) in their long-running
investigation into the U.S. company's search practices in Europe,
after receiving "very, very" negative responses to a proposed
settlement announced in February, the EU's antitrust chief
said.
Any decision to reopen the EU's settlement with Google for an
unprecedented fourth time would be something of an about-face for
EU competition chief Joaquín Almunia, who has long insisted that
Google's commitments were sufficient to meet his agency's
competition concerns.
The turnaround comes after the European Commission decided that
some concerns raised by complainants in response to letters
explaining Brussels' settlement decision were "justified," Mr.
Almunia said.
"We...are trying to understand the arguments of the complainants
and trying to extract from Google solutions to these solid
arguments," Joaquin Almunia, the EU's competition commissioner,
told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Sept. 6.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July that the commission was
preparing to revisit the proposed settlement for a fourth time.
Write to Tom Fairless at tom.fairless@wsj.com
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