The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun an investigation into a proposed purchase of advertising management technology company DoubleClick Inc. by Google Inc. for possible anti-trust violations, the New York Times reported Tuesday. Google announced its plans to purchase DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in April, and the FTC investigation was expected to follow after several Internet privacy groups filed a joint complaint with the FTC concerning the potential buy-out. According to Don Harrison, Google's senior corporate counsel, the acquisition "poses no risk to competition" and has been reviewed by "numerous independent analysts and academics."

Google has been the focus of many investigations concerning its compliance with both US and foreign laws. Most recently, the European Commission began an investigation into whether Google complies with EU privacy rules. In April, AFP and Google settled a landmark copyright infringement lawsuit over Google's practice of automatically pulling and displaying photos, headlines and leads of news stories from the websites of AFP subscribers.