EU Will Take Tougher Stance Than U.S. on Google Search Results

While the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s investigation into how Google serves up search results went out with a whimper last week, the European Union’s antitrust enforcer has issued an aggressive public challenge of the company’s practices.

“We are still investigating, but my conviction is [Google] are diverting traffic,” Joaquín Almunia told the Financial Times (sub).

Almunia referred to Google’s preferential treatment of its own vertical search services, such as maps, or airline flight or shopping comparison information.