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Google and FTC to close antitrust investigation tomorrow, with Google agreeing to ‘voluntarily change’ some practices

While Microsoft may not be happy with Google over semi-related antitrust concerns at the moment, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission will allegedly close its probe tomorrow into whether Google gives its own services a favorable advantage in search results.

Bloomberg reported this evening, citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, that Google will supposedly resolve a 20-month antitrust investigation by U.S. regulators tomorrow with a “voluntary agreement and a consent decree on the company’s alleged misuse of patents.”

Google has apparently agreed to “voluntarily change some business practices and settle allegations it misused patents to thwart competitors in smartphone technology,” added Bloomberg, and it will “make changes in the way it uses content from other websites and allow advertisers to export data to other platforms.”

In a blog post earlier today, Microsoft Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Dave Heiner lambasted Google, and he further accused the Internet Giant of blocking access to a “fully featured YouTube app for the Windows Phone.”

Source: Bloomberg

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