Despite last week's exoneration of any wrongdoing by a United States federal investigation, Google now faces renewed scrutiny ahead of the ruling by the European Commission.
Quoted in the Financial Times, the European Commission's antitrust chief Joaquin Almunia accused the of abusing its dominant position in the search market.


"We are still investigating but my conviction is [Google is] diverting traffic. They are monetising this kind of business, the strong position they have in the general search market and this is not only a dominant position, I think – I fear – there is an abuse of this dominant position."

Google is suspecting of deliberately promoting its own products and services ahead of its competitors, as opposed to allowing the search algorithms and rankings to work independently and free from bias.

In order to "restore the level playing field" the Vice President of the European Commission claimed the earlier findings US Federal Trade Commission (whose panel of five ruled that Google's search techniques do not harm consumers) would have no bearing on the EU decision.

[the FTC ruling would be] "neither an obstacle [for the European Commission] nor an advantage [for Google]".
A Google spokeswoman said: "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Union."