Media content is downgraded in search results. It is based on these suspicions that the EU Commission launched an investigation into potential violations of European digital markets law (DMA) by Google, one of the technology giants, which risks a fine of up to 10% of its global turnover and up to 20% in the event of repeated violations. The executive aims to complete the investigation within 12 months. If the Commission finds evidence of non-compliance, it will notify Alphabet, Google’s parent company, of the initial findings and explain the actions Alphabet will take or should take to address the identified issues. If systematic violations occur, the Commission may take additional action, such as requiring the gatekeeper to sell the business or part thereof, or prohibiting the gatekeeper from obtaining additional services related to systemic non-compliance.
This is a formal procedure to evaluate whether Google applies fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms for access to publisher websites on Google Search, an obligation regulated by the Digital Markets Act, the European law that regulates digital groups in the EU and which has long been under fire from major US platforms and the Trump administration. Brussels highlighted that Google, based on its “policy against abuse of site reputation”, downranks websites and content from media and other publishers in Google search results when the sites include content from commercial partners, namely advertising.
Brussels is investigating whether the decline of publishers’ websites and content on Google Search “could impact publishers’ freedom to conduct legitimate businesses, innovate and collaborate with third-party content providers.” Initiation of the procedure “does not reduce” the non-compliance assessment. This only shows that the Commission will try the case, Brussels said.
“We are concerned that Google’s policies do not allow news publishers to be treated fairly, reasonably and non-discriminatorily in search results. We will investigate to ensure that news publishers do not lose important revenue at a difficult time for the industry and to ensure that Google complies with the Digital Markets Act,” explained Teresa Ribera, head of Antitrust. “Our investigation aims to protect publishers’ funding, their freedom of business, and, ultimately, media pluralism and our democracy,” added the European Commission’s Head of Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen.
The company responded by discussing an investigation
“unfounded” and risks harming millions of users and quotes a German court that has rejected a similar appeal, “establishing that our anti-spam policy is valid, reasonable and consistently applied”.
