Vestager told a news conference that Google had engaged in distorting online shopping search results in a broad number of EU member states since 2008 "and continues to do so".

"Just to be absolutely clear. We do not wish to interfere with screen design, with design choices (...) or how the algorithm works. Rather, what we would like to see, is that consumers are certain to see the best comparison shopping results," she said after the EU accused Google of cheating competitors by distorting Internet search results in favor of its Google Shopping service.

U.S. companies played a major role in business associations that had complained about Google's dominance, she said.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft and Robert-Jan Bartunek; editing by Robin Emmott)