Google faces biggest damage claim

BBC.

It claims that Google used its market dominance to block the development of rival services. An earlier complaint from 1PlusV and others, including Microsoft, triggered a European Commission investigation.

It also faces a probe from the US Federal Trade Commission. 1plusV, which runs the Ejustice.fr legal Web site and search engine, said court action was the 'logical' next step in its campaign to force closer scrutiny of Google's practices.

The vertical search firm said Google has used a number of anti-competitive practices for four years, which the company claims has prevented it from generating traffic and attracting advertising, reveals PC Pro.

1plusV claims some of its 30 sites “with significant economic potential”, have been “delisted” by Google, meaning they no longer showed up in search results.

It said Google manipulated “natural results” to favour its own services and disadvantaged rivals by applying quality control criteria that did not apply to Google services.

“If competition had been able to function normally, the 30 search engines would generate today more than 30 million euros in sales per year” the company said, notes AFP.

Google's search and advertisement practices are also being examined by US competition authorities in addition to the EU probe.