( CNN ) -- Many of Europe 's leading tech entrepreneurs are meeting at the annual LeWeb conference in Paris this week to celebrate the future - an `` Internet of things '' governed by intelligent devices . But , rather than Paris , the most consequential European meeting about the future of the Internet this week may have taken place in Brussels on Monday . In contrast with the radically transparent networking culture that characterizes LeWeb , the Brussels event was a meeting between two powerful bureaucrats that took place , like all meetings between powerful bureaucrats , behind closed doors . Jon Leibowitz , the Chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) met with Joaquin Almunia , the vice-president of the European Commission to discuss Google - the dominant company on today 's Internet . Specifically , they were meeting to discuss potential FTC and EU anti-trust lawsuits against the tech giant , in an attempt to resolve the Google problem . It 's a very simple problem . The future may , indeed , have arrived on the Internet . But rather than being run by intelligent devices , it 's unfortunately being run more and more by a single company -- Google , which controls over 90 % of the search market in several European countries . And the problem , as both the FTC and the commission recognize , is that this dominance may , in part , be illegal . Google has been accused in both Europe and the United States of using its dominant position in search to unfairly promote its own products and services -- from travel and shopping comparison engines to advertising and mapping . These accusations have been well documented and extend from successful American internet companies such as Yelp , Expedia and Nextag to European start-ups like eJustice.fr and Foundem . At a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday , Almunia confirmed that the commission was working `` intensively '' on its probe of Google . Meanwhile , Google 's executive chairman Eric Schmidt , in a characteristically pugnacious message to Almunia and Leibowitz , told the Wall Street Journal that `` it 's time for them to sort of move to one resolution or another . It 's not like they do n't have a million documents and so forth . '' Schmidt is right . Given the speed of technological change , it 's time for both the commission and the FTC to decide whether or not to bring their anti-trust lawsuits against Google . The longer both Almunia and Leibowitz wait , the more powerful Google becomes , and the more indecisive and laggardly the regulators appear . Time is , indeed , of the essence . As the future arrives on all our devices and `` the Internet of things '' becomes a reality , it is essential that this Google problem , which is undermining entrepreneurial innovation , is resolved . An Internet of things must be a place of all of our things , not just Google 's things . And as Google products such as its self-driving cars and data goggles pioneer this brave new world of intelligent devices , it is essential that the FTC and the commission guarantee that the ubiquitous Google search engine does n't degenerate into a platform for this increasingly powerful company to hawk its own intelligent products and services . Google 's Eric Schmidt spoke at Le Web last year . `` This particular conference is one of the best venues for new entrepreneurs in Europe , '' he said , rightly , of Europe 's largest Internet event . But for future entrepreneurs really to be able to innovate , we need fair search which does n't prioritize the products and services of Google itself . We are thus relying on Leibowitz and Almunia . Let 's hope they can make a decision on whether to move ahead with their anti-trust cases by the end of the year . Let 's hope they can solve the Google problem . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andrew Keen .
U.S. and EU regulators met in Brussels this week to discuss `` the Google problem '' They were considering whether its dominance of the search market may be illegal . The European Commission is investigating Google's alleged abuse of a dominant position on Internet searches, according to people familiar with the matter. He says it is important to ensure entrepreneurial innovation is allowed to flourish .