EU probes Google over alleged search bias against publishers

The European Commission announced Thursday it is investigating whether Google Search unfairly demoted web publishers’ pages containing third-party commercial content, such as affiliate links and sponsored editorial articles.

The Commission said it had seen indications that Google’s “site reputation abuse policy” was unfairly affecting news media and other web publishers’ search ranking, by pushing pages with commercial content so far down the search results that they effectively became invisible to users.

“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,” said Teresa Ribera, the EU’s antitrust chief, in a statement.

The EU investigation falls under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the bloc’s landmark legislation largely aimed at curbing what they see as Big Tech’s anti-competitive practices.

While the investigation does not mean Google is at fault, confirmed non-compliance could mean fines of up to 10% of the company’s global revenue. The Commission said it is aiming to conclude the investigation within 12 months.

Google dismissed the investigation as “misguided” and “without merit” in a blog post, arguing that the policy is part of anti-spam efforts to improve user experience.

The inquiry follows complaints from German media company, ActMeraki, in April, alleging Google’s site reputation abuse policy was affecting revenue. Other European publisher groups also brought up similar concerns.

The EU’s latest investigation adds to Google’s regulatory woes in Europe. In September, the Commission fined Google almost €3 billion after it found that the company breached EU antitrust rules with its ad tech practices.

Google subsequently announced that it disagrees with the commission’s decision, calling it “wrong” and said it will appeal.

Last month, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority designated Google as having “strategic market status” (SMS) under Britain’s new digital competition laws, after finding Google had “substantial and entrenched market power in general search and search advertising.” The designation opens the door to potential interventions, though it does not indicate wrongdoing.