Google, FTC Reach Agreement On Competition Issues

The FTC has issued a press release claiming that it has reached an agreement with Google to resolve competition concerns in the markets for smartphones, games, tablets, and online search.

The FTC states that pursuant to a settlement agreement, Google will comply with earlier promises to permit access to competitors on reasonable terms to patents on certain popular devices. And as a result of an independent commitment letter, Google will provide greater flexibility to online advertisers to manage advertisement campaigns on Google's AdWords platform and to make sure not to misappropriate content from vertical sites that target specific categories (such as travel) for offerings.

In addition to the foregoing, the FTC had launched an investigation to determine if Google had biased its search results to the detriment of some vertical sites. The FTC also looked into whether Google had engaged in anticompetitive agreements for the distribution of Google Search in the