European Union: Announced investigation into Google for alleged abuse of dominance regarding comparison shopping service

On 30 November 2010, the European Commission (EC) announced its investigation into Google for allegedly abusing its dominance in the shopping comparison market. Specifically, Google is alleged to have ranked the unpaid search results of competitors lower compared to its own services, which it displayed in an anti-competitively preferential matter. Further, Google is alleged to have lowered the quality score of rival search services, while also obliging advertising partners to exclusively display their advertisements on Google's search page. The investigation follows several complaints made to the EC in 2009.