FTC regrets release of Google report documents

Three US Federal Trade Commission members said they regretted the inadvertent release of part of an agency report about its probe of Google Inc as the company continued to face anti-trust scrutiny from European authorities.

According to the document, which formed the central part of the report by The Wall Street Journal, key staff members at the FTC were in favour of suing Google for alleged breach of antitrust law.

A settlement was reached by the agency with the internet advertising company in early 2013.

Defending the final outcome, chairwoman Edith Ramirez and commissioners   Julie Brill and Maureen Ohlhausen, said in a statement on Wednesday: "Contrary to recent press reports, the commission's decision on the search allegations was in accord with the recommendations of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, Bureau of Economics, and Office of General Counsel."

The agency added it regretted the release of the documents, which were confidential and should not have been included in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

"We are taking additional steps to ensure that such a disclosure does not occur in the future," the commissioners said.

The release came as European anti-trust regulators considered further measures against the company following a four-year investigation.

Google had been investigated by the agency in 2013 for presumed anti-competitive business practices, but the commissioners cleared the company in a unanimous vote from its commissioners.

The agency accidentally leaked an antitrust report regarding the investigation to The Wall Street Journal last week, instead of a Freedom of Information Act request. According to the  document, Google had used data and content from rival businesses without their consent, and resolved to threaten them with exclusion from their widely-used search engine when complaints were raised.

According to an excerpt from the FTC statetement, ''The Commission works vigorously to protect consumers and promote competition in the marketplace and does not hesitate to act on the behalf of consumers when the facts warrant an enforcement action. In fact, on the same day that it closed the search investigation, the Commission settled a complaint alleging that Google's conduct with regard to certain standard essential patents constituted unfair methods of competition under the FTC Act''.

However, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal this week, Google employees had met with high-ranking White House and FTC officials over 230 times during the Obama administration, including numerous times during ''critical phases'' of the FTC's investigation.