WSJ: US Justice Prepares for New Google Antitrust Investigation

The US Justice Department is preparing an antitrust investigation targeting Google. According to sources from The Wall Street Journal. The government body would like to examine the business practices of Google’s search department and other parts.

The Wall Street Journal’s sources remain anonymous. Through official channels, the US Department of Justice does not want to confirm or deny that an investigation is imminent. Google declined to comment to Reuters. That medium further writes that the research would again focus on how Google prefers its own services in its search results.

In 2013, the US Federal Trade Commission also completed an antitrust investigation into Google. One of the results of this was that Google voluntarily made its search results more friendly to competitors. At the time, Microsoft already expressed reservations about Google favoring its own services in its search results, which is what the antitrust investigation is reportedly about.

In March this year, the European Commission fined Google 1.49 billion euros for abuse of power with its AdSense platform. According to the European Commissioner for Competition, Google’s conduct has led to a ‘vicious circle’, in which AdSense competitors were unable to grow or compete.