Google has hit out at News Corp after Rupert Murdoch's company lodged a formal complaint against the search and ad giant to the competition wing of the European Commission.

News Corp's newspaper the Wall Street Journal—citing an insider—reported that Murdoch's media empire was "concerned Google reinforces its dominance in general search by 'scraping' or copying content from publishers to display the results of news article."

Google has been accused by News Corp of altogether stripping its search results of articles that publishers prevent from being copied, according to the WSJ.

This is the second complaint News Corp has lodged with Brussels' antitrust officials, who have so far spent more than half a decade formally investigating a variety of concerns about Google's alleged abuse of dominance in search in Europe.

Murdoch's company complained to the European Commission about Google's business practices in April 2015—around the time that competition chief Margrethe Vestager issued formal charges against the search behemoth's alleged abuse of dominance in the price comparison market.

However, News Corp didn't reveal the nature of that particular complaint.

A Google spokesperson told Ars: "Google News and Search send billions of clicks for free to the websites of news publishers. We also work with European publishers to support journalism online and a more sustainable eco-system for news."

News Corp's latest complaint comes as rumours mount that Google will imminently face a second Statement of Objections from Vestager—this time over its Android operating system.

Vestager's office declined to comment when pressed by Ars on the speculation that a formal charge will be issued shortly against Google's Android business practices in Europe.

Meanwhile, Google defended its OS. "Anyone can use Android, with or without Google applications," Google's spokesperson told Ars.

"Hardware manufacturers and carriers can decide how to use Android and consumers have the last word about which apps they want to use on their devices. We continue to discuss this with the European Commission."