"The bloc's executive arm announced the move after monitoring found that certain content created with advertisers and sponsors was being given such a low priority by the US tech giant that it was effectively no longer visible in search results. European Commission officials said this potentially unfair loss of visibility and of revenue to media owners may be as a result of an anti-spam policy Google operates."
"Under the rules of the Digital Market Act (DMA), which governs competition in the tech sectors, Google must apply fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions of access to publishers websites on Google search. Commission officials said the investigation was not into the overall indexing of newspapers or their reporting on Google Search, just into commercial content provided by a third parties."
"Media partnerships with businesses selling goods or services ranging from holidays to trainers were normal commercial practice in the offline world and they should also exist in a fair online marketplace such as Google, they said. For example a newspaper may have teamed up with Nike to offer discounts, but there was evidence that under a Google search that sub-domain of the newspaper would be demoted to a point that users will not be able to find it anymore which then impacts the newspapers."
The European Commission opened an investigation into Google Search over concerns that commercial content on news media sites is being demoted and rendered effectively invisible. Monitoring found content created with advertisers and sponsors receiving such low priority that visibility and revenue for media owners may be lost, possibly due to an anti-spam policy operated by Google. The probe invokes the Digital Markets Act requirement for fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory access to publishers' websites on Google Search. The investigation targets third-party commercial content, not overall newspaper indexing or reporting. Publishers will be asked to submit evidence of traffic and revenue impacts.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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