By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The majority of top
decision-makers at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission believe
that an antitrust case should be brought against Google Inc,
meaning the search giant could soon be headed into tough
negotiations, three people familiar with the matter said.
Four of the FTC commissioners have become convinced after
more than a year of investigation that Google illegally used its
dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals, while one
commissioner is skeptical, the sources said.
All three declined to be named to protect working
relationships.
Two of the sources said a decision on how to proceed could
come in late November or early December.
A long list of companies has been complaining to the FTC,
arguing that the agency should crack down on Google.
Companies rarely talk publicly about their dealings with the
FTC, but consumer reviews website Yelp and comparison shopping
website Nextag have both complained about Google during open
hearings in Congress.
Google rivals specializing in travel, shopping and
entertainment have accused Google, the world's No. 1 search
engine, of unfairly giving their web sites low quality rankings
in search results to steer Internet users away from their
websites and toward Google products that provide similar
services.
Computer users are overwhelmingly more likely to click on
the top results in any search. The low ranking often forces
companies to buy more ads on Google to improve their visibility,
one source said.
Google has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Asked about any discussions with the FTC, Google spokeswoman
Niki Fenwick said: "We are happy to answer any questions that
regulators have about our business." The FTC declined to
comment.
During a congressional hearing in September 2011, Google
Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt denied that the company
manipulated its search results. "May I simply say that I can
assure you we've not cooked anything," he told the Senate
Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.
COMPLAINTS PILE UP
The one source said the FTC commissioners have given weight
to other complaints that Google refuses to share data that would
allow advertisers and developers to create software to compare
the value they get on Google to advertising spending on
Microsoft's Bing or Yahoo.
In a related issue, the FTC is looking at Google's handling
of valuable patents, which are determined to be essential to
smartphones. The agency is trying to determine if they are
licensed fairly and whether patent infringement lawsuits are
used to hamper innovation.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in mid-September that he
expected a decision in the case by the end of the year. European
regulators are conducting a similar antitrust probe.
If the agency finds that Google broke the law, the FTC and
Google could hammer out a settlement that resolves the issues
or, if settlement negotiations fail, the matter could end up in
a lengthy, expensive court fight.
The FTC announced in April that it had hired high-powered
Washington lawyer Beth Wilkinson to lead the probe. The hiring
was seen as a sign that the FTC was contemplating filing a
lawsuit against Google.
This is not the first run-in that Google has had with the
agency.
In August, Google was forced to pay $22.5 million to settle
charges it bypassed the privacy settings of customers using
Apple Inc's Safari browser. The practice was in violation of a
2011 consent decree with the FTC over a botched rollout of the
now defunct social network Buzz.
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