Google's rivals on Monday called for a second full review of the search giant's latest proposed measures aimed at avoiding a fine from the European Commission for allegedly breaking competition rules.
Competition Commissioner Joaquín Almunia received new proposals from Google last week, his office said Monday, and now the search giant's rivals want a chance to comment on them.
Google has been under investigation by the European Commission since November 2010, after rivals accused the search giant of directing users to its own services by reducing the visibility of competing websites and services in search results. It was also accused of content-scraping and imposing contractual restrictions that prevent advertisers from moving their online campaigns to rival search engines.
In April Google proposed a set of measures to avoid sanctions, including labelling links to its own sites in search results. It also promised to include links to rival search engines for specialist restaurant search results that generate revenue for Google, remove exclusivity provisions from advertising contracts for five years and offer tools to prevent web scraping by allowing content owners to opt out.
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