Brussels opens investigation into Google to penalize media content
The European Commission has evidence that the search engine is violating EU law, to the detriment of the business model of news portals.
BrusselsNew investigation by Brussels against Google. The European Commission announced on Thursday that it has opened an investigation into Alphabet, the search engine's parent company, because it has evidence that penalizes media content and websites in their searches. If this allegation is confirmed, the tech giant would be in breach of the European Union's Digital Services Act, and the European Commission could impose a multi-million euro fine.
Brussels explains in the statement that the investigation it has launched, which is expected to last about a year, will focus on the search engine's "abusive policy," which appears to "directly affect the common and legitimate way media outlets monetize their websites and content." Furthermore, the European Commission wants to determine whether this behavior is detrimental to the "commercial activities" of media outlets.
The Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition, the Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera, points out in the statement that the Commission's decision is part of its commitment to "ensure" that search engines like Google treat media outlets "fairly, reasonably, and without discrimination." "We're going to investigate to make sure that newspaper publishers aren't losing significant revenue at such a difficult time for the industry," the community leader added.
The threat of a fine
Brussels estimates the investigation could last around a year and, if it concludes that Alphabet has violated EU law, could impose a fine of up to 10% of the tech giant's total international revenue. Later, if Google fails to take steps to cease violating the Digital Services Act, the financial penalty could increase to 20% of the company's revenue.
