The Federal Trade Commission’s 18-month investigation into Google’s (GOOG) business practices may be coming to an end, according to a report from Mercury News. It has been alleged that the Internet giant’s popular search engine unfairly promoted Google services and buried results belonging to the competition. The Mountain View-based company is also being investigated for alleged misuse of Motorola’s patents and its commitment to license them under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.
Based on their findings, antitrust regulators must now decide whether or not to pursue legal action against Google, a ruling that will likely be decided by the end of the year. Legal experts have said that the FTC could force the company to change the way it displays search results, or in the worst-case scenario, the Commission could even force Google to close or sell some of its online services to eliminate concerns about favoritism. Such a move would be highly controversial and met with high legal barriers, however. Google has denied any wrongdoing.
