Google Urged to Improve EU Antitrust Probe Accord Proposals

Google Inc. must present the European Union with “better” proposals if it wants to settle the almost three-year-old EU antitrust probe into the way it operates its search service, the bloc’s competition chief said.

Google’s offer in April, which included “clearly” distinguishing its own search services from those of rivals for five years, won’t be sufficient to allay the EU’s concerns, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said at a press conference in Brussels today. He said he wrote to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt asking to improve their offer.