The European Union's antitrust body is again rejecting Google's offer to settle a case claiming it abuses its dominant position in Internet searches.
The 28-nation bloc's competition authority said Tuesday it is "now in contact with Google to see if they are ready to offer solutions" to improve their proposed settlement.
Google Inc. and the EU reached a third tentative settlement in February, which was then announced by EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia with much fanfare as a breakthrough in the four-year-old investigation.
But Almunia backtracked in an interview Monday. His spokesman Antoine Colombani said Tuesday that the plaintiffs — Google's competitors — have provided new data on how the latest proposed settlement would be problematic. He added: "we consider that some of them should be taken in consideration."
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.