Google Getting off easy

Google, after a year under the antitrust microscope, appears likely to avoid the most severe regulatory penalties — ones that could have forced it to change its business model, The NY Post has learned. The Federal Trade Commission, which has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Google’s search business and other areas, will soon charge Google with a “deceptive acts or practices” violation, according to a source close to the situation. Such a charge, known in FTC parlance as a Section 5 case, would find, for example, that Google’s search engine produced deceptive results but would not force the Mountain View, Calif., company to alter its search algorithm or exit certain business sectors…… Charges could include specific cases of search preference, and could also revolve around CEO Larry Page’s company pressuring phone makers who use its Android operating system to use Google as its default search engine, the source said……........................................................................................................ http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/getting_off_easy_SUf4k9cWxKEpaJ6aY31sYP