A report today says that Google is facing an ultimatum from the FTC over antitrust deal talks. Apparently Google is being pressured to make an offer and settle the FTC’s antitrust investigation over Google’s alleged search engine abuse, and how it misused its patent protection in the smartphone wars.
Bloomberg, via iDownloadBlog:
Google has been engaged in discussions with the agency for about two weeks and hasn’t put any remedy proposals on the table, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private.
Unless the search Goliath complies in the next few days, two people familiar with the situation said, it will face a formal complaint.
If Google doesn’t make an “acceptable settlement proposal” sources say, the FTC is ready to mount a case against the search giant.
The report says that the FTC told Google it will not accept any resolution short of a consent decree, and is prepared to take action in the next week or so.
The FTC took issue with Google prioritization of its own services in search rankings, signing exclusive agreements to provide search services to online publishers and for making it difficult for advertisers to compare Google campaigns to those on competing search platforms.
The staff has also reportedly recommended that the agency issue a complaint against Google for their misuse of patent protections to block their rivals’ smartphones from coming to market.
