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Google has already won approval from US antitrust authorities. "The Commission's in-depth market investigation found that Google and DoubleClick were not exerting major competitive constraints on each other's activities and could, therefore, not be considered as competitors at the moment," the Commission claims in a statement.

The Commission also claims the combined company would lack the power to marginalise Google's competitors in "ad serving", which uses software to help advertisers target potential customers. At the same time, it helps advertisers sell blank space on their websites.

Google has by far the strongest position in web search in Europe, and the acquisition drew opposition from competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo.

Privacy advocates complained that the deal would allow the two companies to combine their different methods of gathering information about the habits of web surfers.