The Federal Trade Commission has started an inquiry into whether the overlap of directors on the boards of Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) violates antitrust laws, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported Tuesday morning, citing people familiar with the situation.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson sit on the boards of both companies.

The two companies are competing more often in more areas such as cellphone, Web browser and Internet video areas, which could have triggered the inquiry. Antitrust regulators are allowed to intervene if the presence of directors on two company boards could reduce competition. One main competitor of both companies is Microsoft (MSFT), which itself is no stranger to antitrust inquiries. 

“There’s great interest and importance in maintaining competition and benefits to the consumer in” areas such as information technology, said Evan Stewart, managing partner of the New York office of law firm Zuckerman Spaeder. "You want to make sure consumers have choice, and you want to make sure that companies are very respectful of this.”

The Journal said Schmidt has previously said he excuses himself from portions of Apple’s board meetings where the iPhone is discussed.

Stewart said he didn't think the inquiry would cause serious problems for the companies. 

“Unless the government is in there threatening significant action, I wouldn’t overstate it,” he said.

Google is attracting more attention from antitrust regulators of late -- little surprise, given its dominant position in Internet search and the Obama Administration's signals it might be more aggressive than the Bush Administration in pursuing antitrust actions. Last year, the Justice Department said it would sue to block a proposal advertising deal between Google and Yahoo (YHOO). The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Justice has more recently begun to investigate whether Google's proposed settlement with authors and publishers to gain copyright licenses over millions of digitized works for its Google Book Search service is anticompetitive

Stewart said that the Google/Yahoo inquiry "brought up the level of competence in the Justice Department of understanding what Google does" and put the company under more of a microscope.

Apple did not respond to requests for comment. Google and the FTC declined to comment. 

Stewart said he expects the companies will take action if the government finds there's too much overlap: "Nobody wants to force the government into a legal proceeding to force somebody off a board," he said. 

Schmidt campaigned for President Barack Obama during his campaign for the presidency. He was recently named to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Policy.