investigations

Just as Google was working to settle the antitrust investigation launched by the European Union, the governing body has tacked on one more demand: change your mobile services too.

According to the Financial Times, EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia saved this final stipulation until settlement talks were already well into process. It's unclear what exactly Google needs to change but if the search giant doesn't concede it could lead to the settlement talks falling apart.

The EU's antitrust probe was opened in 2010 when European regulators asked the company to explain how it ranked search results and … Read more

Comcast has agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a Federal Communications Commission probe into the cable giant's broadband marketing practices after its merger with NBC Universal.

The settlement came after an FCC investigation found that Comcast representatives were not adequately marketing its standalone broadband service, a violation of a condition for the carrier's merger with NBC Universal that required Comcast to "visibly offer and actively market" the standalone Internet service for three years.

"Today's action demonstrates that compliance with commission orders is not optional," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. &… Read more

Despite earlier reports saying that it might do so, Australia won't take aim at Google's Street View service over the collection of Wi-Fi data.

The country's news.com.au service reported today that Australia Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim was planning to evaluate a recently released U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report on Street View data collection to determine if his office should call on the Australian Federal Police to launch an investigation into the search giant's practices. However, in a subsequent media statement, the commissioner's office made it clear no such investigation would be … Read more

Two congressmen have asked the Department of Justice to reopen its investigation of Google's Street View street-mapping service, which collected and stored data from unencrypted wireless networks.

Google's Street View cars, which were supposed to collect the locations of Wi-Fi access points, also inadvertently collected e-mail and text messages, passwords, Internet-usage history, and other data from unsecured wireless networks for two years or so, beginning in 2007.

In the wake of a recently released FCC report that concluded no laws had been broken by the surreptitious data gathering, Reps. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and John Barrow (D-Ga.) … Read more

Google has another country to worry about in its fight against antitrust complaints.

India's Competition Commission announced today that it has launched an antitrust investigation into the search giant's practices on its advertising platform, AdWords. There is a chance, the agency said, that it could expand its investigation into other areas.

Google has been hit from all sides as regulators in the U.S. and European Union investigate whether the search company has violated antitrust regulations.

Last week, European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said his office is "very serious" about its investigation into Google's … Read more

Although it has been investigating Google for a considerable amount of time, the European Union's competition office is not ready to decide on the case just yet.

"We are not yet there. This is a complex case," European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said of his office's Google investigation in an interview with Reuters. "We are not in a hurry. We are very serious."

The European Commission launched an investigation into Google's search practices back in November 2010. The investigation followed complaints from search providers, U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French … Read more

Just when it seemed like things were finally settling down for Google in the Street View debacle, more information has been leaked. The formerly unnamed engineer who wrote the code that enabled Street View cars to collect personal e-mail, text messages, passwords, and Internet-usage history from unsecured wireless networks for four years has been identified, according to The New York Times.

Marius Milner is his name and the Times reported that his LinkedIn profile occupation was listed as "hacker" and under the social network's specialties category his entry said, "I know more than I want to … Read more

Australia's Parliament is planning to investigate why it costs more to download software and other content in Australia than it does in other countries.

The probe comes after a report on the situation released last year by the government Productivity Commission found significant price disparity between prices charged in Australia and in overseas markets. The controversy flared up again last week when Adobe Systems announced that Australians would be paying several hundred dollars more for its Creative Suite software than their American counterparts.

"People here scratch their heads trying to work out why they get fleeced on software … Read more

The Federal Trade Commission has hired a former Justice Department prosecutor to play a crucial role in determining whether it should charge Google with antitrust violations.

The FTC confirmed to The Wall Street Journal last night that it had hired Beth Wilkinson, an attorney at law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. In her new role, Wilkinson, who is also a former Department of Justice prosecutor, will help lead the team that could decide whether the FTC believes that Google violated antitrust regulations and, if so, prosecute the company as well.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, … Read more