Google's business activities have caught the attention of the U.S. Justice Department amid growing calls tech companies are too big and powerful and should be broken up.
Sources told Reuters late Friday The U.S. Justice Department is prepping an investigation of the search giant to determine whether it broke any anti-competition rules in its vast online business.
The focus of the possible probe: whether Google, a unit of parent company Alphabet, is giving preference to its own businesses in search results.
Google's empire stretches across the width and breath of the internet. There's YouTube, its Android mobile phone operating system, its airline reservation data, reviews, maps and other services.
A spokesman for the Justice Department would neither confirm nor deny the potential investigation. And a Google representative declined comment.
Google has run afoul of global regulators and watchdogs before.
Last year, the EU slapped Google with a record $4.9 billion fine for using its popular Android mobile operating system to block rivals.
Before that, there was a $2.7 billion EU penalty for unfairly promoting its own comparison shopping service.
Since then Google has made some changes. It allows competitors to bid for advertising space at the top of a search page, at least giving those advertisers a chance to compete on fairer terms.
