Google will come under intense scrutiny from antitrust authorities in Brussels who announced a full probe into allegations that it had abused its dominant position in the online search market and breached European competition rules.

The investigation, which follows more than eight months of more informal inquiries by competition officials, will centre on claims that the US-based search company gave preferential treatment to its own services when ranking search results, and discriminated against competitors.

It will also probe the contractual relationship which Google has with advertisers. In particular, it will explore allegations that Google imposes exclusivity obligations and restricts advertisers from moving their data to competing platforms.