Just as U.S. Congressional hearings on the intended acquisition of DoubleClick are about to begin, a parallel process is potentiality starting in Europe. Reuters reports that Google filed on Friday with the European Commission for approval of its intended $3.1 billion deal.

(It has similarly filed for approval with the comparable Australian regulatory agency.) And, Reuters reports, just as in the U.S., Yahoo invited scrutiny and, impliedly, disapproval of the acquisition on anti-trust grounds. The European Commission has said it will decide on whether to approve or further investigate the proposed acquisition by October 26. However, it’s quite likely that the Europeans will undertake a deeper investigation of the implications the transaction.

Here’s a related article from the Wall Street Journal about Microsoft’s anti-Google-DoubleClick campaign “behind the scenes.”

Related Topics: Google: Acquisitions | Google: Outside US

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling