SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Google Inc Chief
Executive Larry Page met with officials from the U.S. Federal
Trade Commission in Washington on Tuesday, as the agency moves
closer to completing an investigation of the Internet company’s
business practices, according to Bloomberg news, which cited an
anonymous source.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and the head of
Google’s Washington office were spotted on Capitol Hill,
according to the report.
Google rivals specializing in travel, shopping and
entertainment have accused Google, the world’s largest search
engine, of unfairly giving their web sites low quality rankings
in search results to steer Internet users away from their
websites and toward Google products that provide similar
services.
Reuters reported in October that four of the FTC
commissioners have become convinced that Google illegally used
its dominance of the search market to hurt its rivals, while one
commissioner is skeptical.
Google declined to comment on the report of Page’s meeting
with the FTC, which began a probe of Google in 2011.
“We continue to work cooperatively with the Federal Trade
Commission and are happy to answer any questions they may have,”
Google spokeswoman Samantha Smith said in an emailed statement.
