EU probes Google's news publisher treatment

On Thursday, the European Commission launched a formal investigation into potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by demoting media publishers’ content in Google Search.

According to the executive branch of the European Union, there are indicators that Google is demoting news media and publishers’ websites in Google search results when those websites include content from commercial partners.

This may violate the DMA’s obligation to apply transparent, fair, and non-discriminatory conditions to Google Search’s ranking, as dictated in Article 6(5) and Article 6(12) of the DMA.

“We are concerned that Google’s policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory manner in its search results,”

Teresa Ribera said.

The European Commission will specifically focus on Google’s “site reputation abuse policy,’ which appears to deprive a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetize their websites and content.

The Commission is therefore investigating whether this policy impacts the freedom that publishers should have in determining how they earn money, innovate, and collaborate with third parties.

“We are concerned that Google’s policies do not allow news publishers to be treated in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory manner in its search results. We will investigate to ensure that news publishers are not losing out on important revenues at a difficult time for the industry, and to ensure Google complies with the Digital Markets Act,” Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition, said in a statement.

In a blog post, Google states that Google Search’s site reputation abuse policy was developed to protect people from deceptive and low-quality content, spam, and scams. The company’s anti-spam policy aims to level the playing field, ensuring that websites employing deceptive tactics don’t outrank those competing on merit with their own content. This is also known as “parasite SEO” or “site reputation abuse.”

“We’ve worked together with the European Commission on a range of efforts to protect European consumers, including working to fight scams under the Digital Services Act. Unfortunately, the investigation announced today into our anti-spam efforts is misguided and risks harming millions of European users. And the investigation is without merit: a German court has already dismissed a similar claim, ruling that our anti-spam policy was valid, reasonable, and applied consistently,” Google says.

The European Commission aims to conclude its investigation within 12 months. If found guilty, the Commission can impose fines up to 10% of Google’s parent company, Alphabet’s total worldwide turnover. In the event of repeated infringement, fines can reach as high as 20%.

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