Google to Label Search Results Under Reported Settlement with European Commission

Google has reportedly reached an agreement with the European Commission to change its search practices after a two-year investigation on whether the search engine giant favors its own properties in the search results.

Google has reportedly reached an agreement with the European Commission to change its search practices after a two-year investigation on whether the search engine giant favors its own properties in the search results.

Unnamed sources told the New York Times that the European Union’s executive body has accepted Google’s proposed settlement to label content as coming from Google products such as Google Plus Local and Google News rather than changing its algorithm.

According to the article, Google faces up to a 10-percent penalty of global annual sales if the company does not follow the terms of the agreement, which is legally binding for five years and will be enforced by a third party.

Google’s settlement would impact direct competitors like Microsoft as well as specialized search engines, called vertical search services, like TripAdvisor, Yelp, and the British comparison-shopping site Foundem.

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