With four out of five FTC commissioners of the opinion that Google used its search dominance to hurt its rivals, the commission is currently preparing a 100-page memo in the form of a recommendation that the government should slap anti-trust charges on Google.
Google, on the other hand, refuses to admit any wrongdoing, and in being asked about their discussion with the FTC, Niki Fenwick, Google spokesperson said, “We are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.”
Despite the reassurances of Eric Schmidt who said in September 2011 in front of a Congressional hearing that the company had not ‘cooked up anything’, it seems likely that the FTC will come to a conclusion in late November or early December.
However, this isn’t the first time that Google is facing scrutiny as the FTC hit Google with a fine of $22.5 million for Safari tracking – advertising tracking cookies were placed on Safari users’ computers who visited sites within Google’s DoubleClick advertising network.
Another point of contention that the FTC is looking into is whether Google is blocking access to industry-standard patents that are usually licensed to competitors according to usual industry and legal practice.
This scrutiny comes as a result of Google’s competitors such as Yelp and Nextag testifying in court almost a year ago and saying that the firm directs users to its services instead of those of its competitors.
Google, not surprisingly, continues to stay on top of search with an increase in market share over the years while Yahoo has struggled. While users made used Google for 66.7 percent of its searches, its closest rival, Microsoft’s Bing, only has a market share of 15.9 percent.