European Commission still tight-lipped on Google anti-trust probe

The European Commission (EC) is yet to decide on whether it will formally charge Google with any anti-trust issues after the vice president for competition policy admitted the organisation had yet to reach a decision on the issue.

Responding to questions from an MEP in the European Parliament, vice president of the EC, Joaquín Almunia, said while the organisation was working through the case as quickly as possible, no decision had yet been made.

"The Commission is dealing with this case as a matter of priority. However, a thorough assessment of the several categories of allegations of infringements of competition rules brought forward by several complainants is necessary," he said.

"The Commission is, to date, not in a position to say whether its investigation will lead to issuing a Statement of Objections."

V3 contacted Google for its response to the statement, but the firm said it had no comment to make.

The comments come after reports had surfaced that the EC has compiled a 400-page document outlining its objections with Google's practices, including allegations that it is abusing its dominance in the search market to the detriment of other companies.

Microsoft, itself the subject of a major competition investigation in the past, made an official complaint against Google, while the US government is investigating the company over similar issues.

Executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt was forced to deny the firm ever 'cooked' search results during a feisty exchange with senate members in September 2011.