Google’s impending world domination hit a bit of snag today as European Commission competition authorities tenatively blocked Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.

Citing competition concerns, the group, stationed in Brussels, ordered a more in-depth review of the move’s effect on internet advertising and consumers.

While Google is already the industry leader in search ads, thought to control around 70 to 80% of the market in that field, the acquisition of DoubleClick would do much to bolster its display ad capability. After approval Microsoft’s $6 billion aquisition of aQuantive and their subsequent concerns about Google’s DoubleClick purchase, Google was hoping for a victory over their rivals. Yahoo too had voiced concerns about what they perceived would be an inordinately large market share for Google if the deal went through.

The deal with DoubleClick has already been approved in Brazil and Australia, but awaits approval from the FTC here in the US.

In order to make the deal go more smoothly, Google already guaranteed that it would not significantly alter DoubleClick business practices. Apparently, this was not enough to sway the European authorities to approve the deal.

The review process will conclude on April 2nd, which will be the approximate one-year mark after Google announced the DoubleClick deal.

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