According to a report by Reuters Google could face an antitrust case from FTC for using its popular Google search engine to hurt rivals. Reuters reports that four out of five commissioners who were investigating this case for over a year are convinced that Google used search as a tool to promote its own products and hurt its competition while only one commissioner is skeptical and is thinking in favor of the search giant.
The report also mentions that a long list of companies had filed complains to FTC asking it to crack down on Google. Some of these companies might include Yelp and Nextag, who have already complained about Google’s actions during open hearings in the Congress. The business owners of different genres that include travel, shopping, and entertainment blame Google of downranking their results in search in favor of its own online services.
Google has always denied the allegations of it manipulating search results in favor of its own products. Company’s chairman Eric Schmidt once said about these allegations on Google ”May I simply say that I can assure you we’ve not cooked anything,”