Google agreed to negotiate with EU over Anti-trust case

Google Inc agreed to negotiate with European Union (EU) over Anti-trust case on 5 February 2014. The agreement was announced by the Federal Trade commission of the US.

Under a tentative deal with European Commission regulators, Google agreed to tweak the way it presents search results in Europe. The deal reached will help address concerns in EU that Google is abusing its dominance in online search to favour its own services at the expense of rivals. However, Google would not pay a fine under the agreement.

Google used a strategy of accommodation to resolve a potential anti-trust lawsuit in the U.S. Google agreed to bring small changes to its search practices to avoid formal charges by the Federal Trade Commission in 2013.

Google faced the allegation that when users search for products, Google features results from Google Shopping and relegates products featured on rival sites lower, where they may not be seen.

Under the deal, Google agreed to reserve space near the top of its European search pages for competitors to serve specialized search results for things like hotel rooms alongside Google services that do the same thing.