Google Avoids $5 Billion Fine by Settling Antitrust Case, Tentatively

Google has reached a tentative agreement to settle a three-year antitrust investigation in Europe, letting the search giant avoid a potential $5 billion fine

The European Commission, which launched the probe in 2010, announced the deal on Wednesday after Google promised to make "significant" changes to the way it displays rivals' search results. Google's competitors in Europe accused the search giant of more prominently displaying search results from businesses that paid Google to display their results.

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"My mission is to protect competition to the benefit of consumers, not competitors," Joaquin Almunia, the European Union’s competition commissioner who is leading the probe, said in a statement. "I believe that the new proposal obtained from Google after long and difficult talks can now address the Commission's concerns." Read more...

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