EU: Competition regulators preparing additional charges against Google

European Union competition regulators are preparing to issue an additional layer of formal charges as soon as late July against Alphabet Inc.’s Google over its behavior with its shopping service, according to people familiar with the matter.

The so-called supplementary statement of objections will likely sharpen the EU’s previous accusations that Google uses its dominance in search to favor its own service in the shopping market, according to one of the people familiar. That could shape the case to create possible precedents for how the US tech firm also operates in other domains, including with its local or travel services.

The European Commission, the bloc’s antitrust body, declined to comment. Google didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Commission first filed formal charges against Google in April 2015 for favoring its comparison-shopping service in search results.

The EU’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager then said she continues to have concerns that Google is also abusing its dominance with those other search services.

Full Content: The Wall Street Journal

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