Marking the latest development in the European Commission (EC)'s antitrust investigation against Google for its alleged manipulation of search results, the EC has asked Google to offer stronger remedial measures to address complaints that its search engine promotes the company's own sponsored results rather than those of the competitors.

Amid Google's efforts to settle the 2010-initiated antitrust investigation by the EC - which heads the Executive Branch of the European Union (EU) -, the commission has warned the company that it requires to make stronger concessions in its proposed offer to settle the pending antitrust action which is based on the way its search results are presented to the Web users.

With the EC's antitrust investigation against Google essentially stemming from the company's dominant 90 percent share of the EU search market, the EC has expressed concerns that the search giant had been exploiting its advantageous market position to promote its own advertisers and its own services to the detriment of its rivals.

The EC's demand to Google to offer strong remedies to its search engine dominance comes in response to the proposed settlement which the company presented earlier this year. The proposal included highlighting of sponsored links and results from Google advertisers, as well as ensuring that the results of at least three Google competitors showed up on the first page --- a proposal which, as per Google's rivals, actually highlighted Google's products while downplaying the competitors' results.