Antitrust regulators in Europe are following in the footsteps of their U.S. counterparts and looking into a proposed advertising deal between Google and Yahoo, Reuters reported on Monday.
The European Competition Commission decided in mid-July to open a preliminary investigation into the deal's potential effects on competition in the European market, Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, told Reuters.
Under the agreement signed in June, Google will provide Yahoo with ads that will run on Yahoo's search site.
Meanwhile, sources say U.S. officials are debating whether to challenge the Google-Yahoo revenue-sharing ad deal, or broaden their investigation into Google's overall dominance in the search advertising market.
A Google spokesman provided this comment via e-mail: "The agreement is limited in scope to Yahoo's U.S. and Canadian Web sites, and it will not have any significant effect on Europe. We are of course co-operating with the Commission and are confident that they will reach the same conclusion."
European Competition Commission officials did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment.
This article was first published as a blog on CNET News.com.
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