Google antitrust News

EBay Inc Chief Executive John Donahoe has added weight to Google Inc`s defence in an antitrust case, saying the two companies are direct competitors in online shopping, a newspaper reported.

After waiting more than four years for Brussels to resolve his anti-trust complaint against Google while traffic to his website plunged by 80 percent, Michael Weber of German online mapping service Hot-Map.com held out little hope of success. Until now.

Plaintiffs in an antitrust lawsuit against Google Inc on Friday withdrew their case accusing the search engine company of harming smartphone buyers by forcing handset makers using Android operating system to make Google`s own applications the default option.

The European Commission is asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some of the information they submitted confidentially, the Journal said, citing several people familiar with the requests.

Google wants to settle the EU probe and avoid a possible fine which could be as much as 10 percent of its global turnover.