EU said to bolster antitrust probe of Google

The European Union is bolstering its original antitrust investigation into Google Inc's search engine as regulators asked the company's critics to declassify details of meetings and e-mail exchanges related to the probe, according to people familiar with the case.

That's typically a final step before the EU files an antitrust complaint, meaning Google could have to defend itself against a supplementary statement of objections over its shopping-search service.

Officials frequently ask companies for permission to use confidential information before they send out a so-called statement of objections, said the two people, who asked not to be named because the case is not public.