The European Commission has sent two Statements of Objections to Google, following a preliminary conclusion that Google has abused its dominant position by favouring its comparison shopping service in its search result pages. Separately, the Commission has also informed Google in a Statement of Objections of its preliminary view that the company has abused its dominant position by artificially restricting the possibility of third party websites to display search advertisements from Google's competitors.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said: "Google has come up with many innovative products that have made a difference to our lives. But that doesn't give Google the right to deny other companies the chance to compete and innovate. Today, we have further strengthened our case that Google has unduly favoured its own comparison shopping service in its general search result pages. It means consumers may not see the most relevant results to their search queries. We have also raised concerns that Google has hindered competition by limiting the ability of its competitors to place search adverts on third party websites, which stifles consumer choice and innovation.

Google has the opportunity to respond to the concerns. In case EC's investigations conclude that Google has broken EU antitrust rules, the Commission has a duty to act to protect European consumers and fair competition on European markets.

The supplementary Statement of Objections on comparison shopping follows a Statement of Objections issued in the same case in April 2015. Both Statements of Objections are addressed to Google and its parent company, Alphabet.

Sending a Statement of Objections does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. Google has the right to defence by responding formally to the additional evidence, within 10 weeks.

Google could face fines up to 10 percent of its global turnover for each case if found guilty of breaching the bloc's antitrust rules.

Google said it believe it increased choice for European consumers and increased choice.

"We'll examine the Commission's renewed cases and provide a detailed response in the coming weeks," a Google spokesman said. Google could face fines up to 10 percent of its global turnover for each case if found guilty of breaching the bloc's antitrust rules.