Coming Soon: Google U.S.A. and Google Europe

Are European regulators tougher than their American counterparts? Based on results of two recent antitrust investigations, one might be led to think so.

GoogleGOOG came out of the Federal Trade Commission’s probe in January relatively unscathed. The FTC, essentially, dismissed allegations that the company manipulated search results to benefit its own services.

European Union regulators Thursday saw things quite differently, according to The Washington Post. The preliminary ruling was that Google might be abusing its dominance as a search engine provider. That, clearly, was not the “Get Out of Jail Free” card, Google wanted.

In another departure from the FTC ruling, the European Commission also said that rival companies were not the only victims of Google’s practices and that, in fact, consumers would benefit from what it called a “freer marketplace.”

In a statement, the Europeans said, “The Commission considers at this stage that these practices could harm consumers by reducing choice and stifling innovation in the fields of specialized search services and online search advertising.”

So, game – set – match? Not exactly.

As a result, Google agreed to make changes to make sure users understand the difference between search results generated by its algorithms and those that profit Google directly. These include payments from advertisers or directing consumers to the company’s own commercial offerings, such as shopping or travel services.

In a less-than-flattering comment about the U.S. agency, Gary L. Reback, an attorney for competitors of Google who brought the complaints forward in both the U.S. and Europe, said, “The Federal Trade Commission looks like a weak sister here. Europeans will have more choices than Americans.”

Google's rivals, however, including Microsoft Inc. MSFT and travel websites such as Expedia Inc. EXPE and TripAdvisor Inc. TRIP were quick to line up against the results of both the U.S. and European probes. The companies said that the results of neither probe went far enough, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

If the European Commission accepts Google’s commitments, they would be legally binding on the company for the next five years, and if the company broke them, it could be fined up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue.

Google currently enjoys a 90 percent Internet-search market share in Europe, compared with just 67 percent in the U.S.

It is not known whether Google would agree to further concessions if the commission asked it to make any because of complaints that may be filed during a 30-day comment period that is part of the European Union ruling.

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any of the mentioned securities.