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The European Union's antitrust authority is preparing the groundwork to file formal charges against Google Inc. (GOOGL: Quote,GOOG: Quote) in the next few weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Google is in the midst of a five-year-old antitrust probe by the European Commission, the European Union's antitrust authority, into alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Internet search and advertising business, triggered by complaints from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Expedia Inc. (EXPE) and others.

Google has also been criticized by some European politicians for misusing its dominant position in the search engine industry. The U.S. Internet giant commands around 90 percent market share for Web search in Europe. However, Google has denied anticompetitive behavior.

According to the WSJ report citing people familiar with the matter, the European Commission, is now asking companies that filed complaints against Google for permission to publish some of the information that was earlier submitted confidentially by these companies.

The WSJ reported that Margrethe Vestager, the new antitrust chief of the EU, has suggested that she prefers the legal certainty of formal charges over negotiated settlements. Vestager's predecessor Joaquin Almunia had tried and failed three times to reach a settlement with Google.

The decision to file charges against Google would be the highest-profile antitrust suit by the EU, following its long-running campaign against Microsoft Corp., which paid 1.7 billion euros in fines through 2012.

In the event the European Commission filed charges, Google will have a period of three months to make a case that its actions do not violate EU law or propose another settlement that would address the charges, the WSJ reported.

In November 2014, the European parliament approved a resolution that called for the unbundling of search engines from other commercial services that Internet companies offer, implying the possible break-up of big Internet companies like Google.

GOOG closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $542.56, down $5.44 or 0.99 percent on a volume of 1.96 million shares. In after-hours, the stock gained $0.19 or 0.04 percent to $524.75.

by RTT Staff Writer

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WSJ: EU Preparing To File Antitrust Charges Against Google