Google wants to avoid a 10-year lawsuit in Europe similar to Microsoft

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said to the Sunday Telegraph that the company wants to avoid a lengthy legal battle with European Union regulators investigating its market dominance.

"We certainly want to avoid that," Eric Schmidt told the paper in an interview. "I think it is in our interests and I would hope in their interests to do a quick analysis of concerns that have been raised by competitors, hopefully they are minor or they are not correct.

"We'll find out and make sure we are operating well within the law and the spirit of the law."

A formal investigation was launched by Brussels in November over the complaints by Google’s rivals in Europe who claimed it was abusing its dominant position in the market for web search services. Similar investigation into Microsoft spilled over into a 10-year legal battle in which the company paid 1.68 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in fines.