EU anti-trust row: Google offers to treat rivals equally via auction

Google has offered to display rival comparison shopping sites via an auction, as it aims to stave off further EU antitrust fines, four people familiar with the matter said.

Google is under pressure to come up with a big initiative to level the playing field in comparison shopping, but its proposal was roundly criticised by competitors as inadequate, the sources said.

EU enforcers see the antitrust case as a benchmark for investigations of other areas dominated by the U.S. search giant, such as travel and online mapping.

Google has already been fined a record 2.4 billion euros ($2.9 bln) by the European Commission for favouring its own service, and could face millions of euros in fresh fines if it fails to treat rivals and its own service equally.

In its proposal submitted to the European Commission on Aug. 29, the company said it would allow competitors to bid for any spot in its shopping section known as Product Listing Ads, the sources said.

EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said it was too early to say if the offer would be accepted.

"It is at this point in time of course impossible to say what will happen but obviously market reactions will be one of the things that we'll be taking under consideration," she told reporters in Washington on Monday.
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