Commish grants Google two more weeks to work on EU antitrust defence

But rivals won’t get a chance to have their say in an oral hearing

Google has been given another deadline extension as it prepares to mount a defence against antitrust charges in Europe.

The search monster will now have until the end of the month to get its affairs in order, EU Competition Commission spokesman Ricardo Cardoso confirmed on Friday.

Google had already been given an extra six weeks to respond to the EU allegations, but has now been given a further two, pushing the deadline to 31 August.

Google is charged with favouring its own services in search results. If the European Commission finds it guilty, the company faces fines of up to 10 per cent of its global turnover and possible divestiture orders.

The latter punishment might now be easier to achieve, given the recent creation of parent company Alphabet and the splitting up of the Chocolate Factory into smaller parts.

When it does finally present its defence, Google will do so in writing rather than opting for an oral hearing. Rivals and complainants are annoyed with this approach as an oral hearing would have given them a chance to air their grievances again as well.

There had been no response from Google at the time of publication. ®