The European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Google’s alleged suppression or demotion of search results on some news sites, an act that potentially breaches the bloc’s stringent Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The decision was taken on Thursday, with indications coming in that a US company was deprioritising news media and other publishers’ websites when they include commercial content, based on its policy.
The Commission found that Google’s policy directly contradicts its Act, as these suppression measures finish up impacting publishers’ profits.
EU antitrust chief, Teresa Ribera stated, “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.”
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“We will investigate to ensure that news publishers are not losing out on important revenues at a difficult time for the industest,” she added.
The breach in policy implementation could incur fines of up to 10 per cent of Google’s worldwide annual turnover, if proven in court.
A Google spokesperson termed the investigation “misguided” and one that “risks harming millions of European utilizers”, adding that the “policy exists to protect people from deceptive, low-quality content and scams”.
This is not the first instance in which the EU Commission has launched a probe into Google’s doings.
Earlier in 2017, the Commission had fined Google €2.42 billion for applying its search engine dominance to give an illegal advantage to its own comparison shopping service.
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