The European Commission said on Wednesday that it is satisfied with Google(s goog)’s latest antitrust settlement offer. Finally – and I say this with trepidation, given previous events and the intransigence of the complainants — the end to this four-year adventure may be in sight.

The Commission is investigating Google over a raft of allegedly anticompetitive practices that it uses to push its own services over those of rivals in its results, and to lock advertising customers into its network. Google had managed to allay most of the regulator’s concerns with its repeated settlement proposals, but the issue of how to display rivals’ services remained a major sticking point.

A new principle

Google has more than 90 percent of the European search market, which is why regulators have to keep such a close eye on the U.S. firm. On Wednesday, competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said Google had agreed to…