Google (News - Alert) has made moves that are geared towards ending an EU antitrust probe without needing to pay heavy fines. The company recently submitted a number of concessions it hopes the European Union would see fit to agree to and drop the matter. The package is considered a strong sign that the world’s number one search engine could finally end what has been a two-year investigation into its actions in Europe.

Companies with the size and scope of Google are seemingly routinely investigated for antitrust actions simply because there is such a thin line when you get down to the nitty gritty of the technology sector. Google especially has had to deal with a number of different investigations that were all broadly aimed at this kind of situation. So far the search giant has managed to come out of most, if not all of those inquiries unscathed.

Google is hardly the only company that has had to deal with these types of investigations. The EU launched the same kind of antitrust investigation into Microsoft (News - Alert) last September over issues with Internet Explorer.

Google first offered a set of proposals at the end of January, but those proposals have now been made far more official. Some of what the company offered up back then have also been fine tuned and changed so that they will be more attractive to the European Union’s investigative body. 

"In the last few weeks, the Commission completed its preliminary assessment formally setting out its concerns. On this basis, Google then made a formal submission of commitments to the Commission," said Antoine Colombani, the Commission's spokesman on competition policy.

Colombani added that the EU is in the process of launching some test balloons in order to gauge the level of satisfaction that would be achieved by these concessions. Among those who will be brought into this phase of the talks are the companies who originally filed the antitrust complaints in 2010.