As expected, the European Commission today formally accused Google of abusing its power when it comes to search, and opened a separate probe into the company's Android mobile operating system.

Specifically, the commission sent a Statement of Objections to Google that accuses the Web giant of favoring its own shopping products, currently known as Google Shopping, in search results, and demoting those of its competitors.

"In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules," EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

"The Commission is concerned that users do not necessarily see the most relevant results in response to queries—this is to the detriment of consumers, and stifles innovation," the organization said in a separate statement.

"Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary," Vestager said. "However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe."

Google has 10 weeks to respond to the European Commission's allegations, before it can seek a formal hearing.

The battle between Google and the EU dates back to 2010, when the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Google over allegations that the company abused its dominant position in online search.

Last year, the EU announced a deal whereby Google would feature links to rival services in its results, as well as make it easier for advertisers and publishers to work with competing firms. But former competition chief Joaquín Almunia re-opened the case in September, after a number of Google rivals pushed back and requested further concessions.

In a blog post, Google argued that competition in search is "thriving," pointing to rivals like Bing, Yahoo, Quora, DuckDuckGo, and mobile search assistants like Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana.

"In addition, there are a ton of specialized services like Amazon, Idealo, Le Guide, Expedia, or eBay," Google continued. "For example, Amazon, eBay, and Axel Springer's Idealo are the three most popular shopping services in Germany."

Google also claimed that people are "increasingly using social sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter to find recommendations, such as where to eat, which movies to watch or how to decorate their homes." Meanwhile, a number of European publications, like Bild and The Guardian, "get up to 85 percent of their traffic directly," Google said. "Less than 10 percent comes from Google." (Update: Google later said its data on The Guardian was incorrect, and based on "guardian.co.uk, which is no longer the main domain for the paper.")

Rivals like Axel Springer, Expedia, TripAdvisor, and Yelp—which have complained about Google's dominance—have all seen significant growth, Google said. (Update: Google later said that "Yelp has pointed out that they get 40 percent of their searches (not their traffic) direct from their mobile apps. They don't appear to disclose their traffic numbers. We're happy to correct the record.)

In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2013 found that Google did not unfairly manipulate its search results to highlight its own products and demote competing firms. There was some debate over that investigation just last month, as documents related to the case were leaked, but the FTC denied any wrongdoing.

Android Probe

The search titan was also hit with a separate Android OS probe, focused on whether Google's open-source platform breaches EU antitrust rules.

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The Commission will concentrate on three allegations: Google's requirement that manufacturers exclusively pre-install its own apps, prevention of developers from installing "Android forks," and bundling of certain services to hinder rivals.

"Smartphones, tablets, and similar devices play an increasing role in many people's daily lives," Vestager said, "and I want to make sure the markets in this area can flourish without anticompetitive constraints imposed by any company."

In response, Google said that Android is "an open-source operating system that can be used free-of-charge by anyone."

"The European Commission has asked questions about our partner agreements," the company said. "It's important to remember that these are voluntaryagain, you can use Android without Googlebut provide real benefits to Android users, developers and the broader ecosystem."

Google would prefer that its Android partners pre-load Google apps on their devices, of course, but they are not required to do so. The Android-based X line Nokia introduced in 2013, for example, was based on the customizable Android Open Source Platform (AOSP). The OS on those phones looked more like Windows Phone devices, and they did not come pre-loaded with Google Play.

If you go the AOSP route, you don't get Google's apps (Google Search, Maps, YouTube, Calendar, Gmail, Google Play, etc.) pre-loaded onto devices. And you can't mix and match (Search app from Google, app store from Amazon, for example). It's an all or nothing deal.

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