The settlement comes after a two-year investigation into California-based Google’s dominance of the search market, reports the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The details of the agreement have not been finalised, but early reports suggest that significant changes will be made to the way Google ranks web sites when it returns results to a user.
The investigation followed claims by several European companies that Google manipulated results to favour their own sites. A Google spokesman said: ‘We continue to work co-operatively with the Commission.’
Google's activities are also facing scrutiny from regulators in the US, South Korea and Argentina.

Apple battle rumbles

Meanwhile, Google’s Californian neighbour Apple is set to ask for $2.5 billion over claims that South Korean company Samsung copied features from its popular iPad product.
Despite a UK judge dismissing the case after deeming Samsung’s device ‘not as cool’ as Apple’s tablet, Legal Pad web site reports that Apple’s lawyers at San-Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster submitted a brief to a US court in the heart of Silicon Valley after midnight on Tuesday.
The firm’s Michael Jacobs stated: ‘Apple looks forward to a trial that will vindicate its intellectual property rights. Samsung must play by the rules. It must invent its own stuff. Its flagrant copying and massive infringement must stop.’
Samsung quickly responded, stating: ‘Apple's overreaching claim for damages is a natural extension of its attempt to monopolise the marketplace.’
The lawsuit is heading for trial on Monday.